Battle of the movie-stars

[Mephisto2]

Gibson's new passion
October 29, 2004 - 7:55AM

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger expressed disbelief today that Mel Gibson thought the governor all but hung up on him when the The Passion of the Christ director called to talk about embryonic stem-cell research.

The Republican governor of California is supporting a state ballot initiative to sell $US3 billion ($A4.04 billion) in bonds to finance stem-cell research, putting him at odds with President George W Bush's administration, which limits federal funding for similar studies.

Gibson told ABC TV's Good Morning America that he has an "ethical problem" with the research and had called the governor Wednesday night to talk about it.

But when Gibson reached Schwarzenegger, he said the governor told him he had to make a speech and would call him back.

"Well, Arnold, I'm still waiting for your call," Gibson said.

Schwarzenegger appeared puzzled.

"I don't know what this was all about," the governor said in Los Angeles.

"I did talk to him for several minutes and explained to him what my position was on" the stem-cell proposal, the governor said. Schwarzenegger said he had to cut short the call because he had to give a speech in San Diego.

"After that, I called back at 9 o'clock and left a message on his phone," Schwarzenegger said. "He hasn't returned my call."

Gibson, a Roman Catholic, as is the governor, said that when he first heard about the proposition, he was overjoyed but later changed his mind. Gibson said he had no faith in the cloning of human embryos but would support the use of adult stem cells.

"I found that the cloning of human embryos will be used in the process and that, for me, I have an ethical problem with that," he said. "Why do I, as a taxpayer, have to fund something I believe is unethical?"

Earlier in the week, actor Brad Pitt voiced support of the measure.

"We have to make sure that we open up these avenues so that our best and our brightest can go find these cures that they believe they will find," the actor said. "Proposition 71 accomplishes this."

AP

REF: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/...992267266.html

Only in California could something this important be thrashed out by movie-stars on breakfast TV.

I'm not sure if this has been discussed much on this board. We all seem to be caught up in Iraq (if you'll pardon the pun) and busy knocking each other's candidate, but I'm curious as to where people stand on this issue.

I can fully understand the ethical issues, but I support the research. It's a very difficult one to call, and is quite an emotive topic, so it's very much a personal decision. What do people here think?


Mr Mephisto

[Mephisto2]

Double post....

[daswig]

I have no problem with people doing stem cell research. I have to question why the government should be subsidizing it. To the best of my knowledge, there is no ban on stem cell research, and people who want to do it can, they just have to pay for their supplies.

I'd also like to note that there are tons of stem cells being discarded daily, primarily from cord blood. They're not that expensive to get. But nobody seems to want to pay to get them. We tried to give some away (free to a good home, as-is, where-is) a few months back, and couldn't find ANYBODY willing to harvest them unless we paid them several thousand dollars. If a researcher wants stem cells, let tehm pay to harvest them.