No longer able to scare his consitutuents into opposing life-saving research, and afraid that his base won't turn out for Forrester, Assemblyman Michael Carroll (R-Morris Twp) has resorted to new lows. While his anti-cure stance is par for the course for anyone trying to win over the extremist radical vote, Carroll goes a bit farther than most. In a recent email to campaign supporters, he not only scares his audience with absurd made up procedures, he also blatantly lies:
Advocates of stem cell research, unhappy with being restricted simply to embryonic stem cells, now propose to use FETAL stem cells. Securing those cells requires pregnancy. This means deliberately cloning human beings, implanting the eggs in a woman, and starting a pregnancy. Perhaps immediately before birth, the pregnancy would be (VERY CAREFULLY) aborted and the child's parts harvested for use by its adult clone.
Scary, right? It's called "fetal farming." Most European nations ban it; even that noble body of enlightened wisdom-- the United Nations-- proposes a similar ban. In only one state is it specifically legal:
Unfortunately, you're standing in it.
New Jersey enjoys the dubious honor of leading the nation in cloning research.
Fred Snowflack in today's Daily Record sums up the ridiculousness best:
Once you analyze the above, you realize Carroll is suggesting that supporters of embryonic stem cell research would support aborting a cloned fetus at eight months for "parts." This is more than the "slippery slope" argument. It's more like falling off the cliff.
In fact, what Carroll says is a complete lie, and as an Assemblyman, he knows it (unless he sleeps through legislative sessions). The stem cell research bill approved on January 2, 2004 specifically outlaws cloning:
C.2C:11A-1 Cloning of human being, first degree crime; definition.
3. A person who knowingly engages or assists, directly or indirectly, in the cloning of a human being is guilty of a crime of the first degree.
As used in this section, "cloning of a human being" means the replication of a human individual by cultivating a cell with genetic material through the egg, embryo, fetal and newborn stages into a new human individual.
The irony of his statements completely lost on him, Carroll's email hilariously continues:
Lacking rational arguments, my opponents resort to invective, insult, and hyperbole.
....
NJ should not become the nation's leading source for human spare parts, but unless we forcefully oppose it, we will be.
Unfortunately, it seems that Carroll is well aware that of the fact that his stance will prevent the discovery of life-saving cures. In May of this year, fourteen year old Emily Greatrex who has juvenile diabetes, went to Trenton to talk to legislators about stem cell research and the hope for a cure. "I'm really hoping that by the time I'm a parent, I won't have this disease anymore," she said. Unfortunately, she ran into Carroll, who's comments brought her to tears:
Within a few minutes, Emily was running to her mother's arms, tears streaming down her face as a crowd gathered.
Before he was done, Emily's mother was crying, too. And her father, still standing next to Carroll, was wondering how to get this guy to just shut up.
"Emily believed him," her father said. "This was like a blow to her stomach."
What exactly did Carroll say?
"He basically told me I would die with diabetes," Emily says. "All the hopes my parents have given me about being cured just disappeared in front of my eyes. He just shot me down."
He's not just a liar - he's a heartless liar. Carroll's running mate, Richard Merkt, who also opposes stem cell research, refuses to denounce Carroll's actions. New Jersey needs compassionate leaders with the vision to support the research needed to discover life-saving cures, and BlueWaveNJ is running an ad highlighting this. On election day, it's important to support Pro-Cure leaders. Our lives may literally depend on it.
