Letters to the Editor
-
Reasoned debate
Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh accuse the Democrates of using victims to prevent reasoned debate (9/11 widows, Michael J. Fox, etc.). But Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh are not at all interested in reasoned debate -- they are interested in personal attacks on the the debater. Michael J. Fox's TV ad is powerful because it puts a face on the abstraction of Parkinson's disease (just as the picture of a starving child puts a face on the abstraction of starvation in Africa) -- but it would have no lasting impact if its core were not true. Stem cell research is the best lead medicine now has for treating Parkinson's disease and many others. If the issue about stem cell research is the use of human embryos -- as conservatives claim it is -- Rush Limbaugh can and should debate that issue. Of course, he would then have to explain why it is acceptable for embryos to be washed down the sink rather than used in medical research ...