Irony is President Bush vetoing legislation that would allow embryonic research while surrounded by so-called "snowflake families", whose children - implanted as embryos into surrogate mothers - wouldn't exist without...substantial...uh...embryonic research. Does he think in-vitro fertilization came about without federally-funded research, including many millions of destroyed "humans"? Does he think the technology was handed down to scientists by God? Hmm...I'm not certain how rhetorical that question actually is...

I understand that Bush didn't authorize the funding for the research that led to in-vitro fertilization. Possibly he would have, given the chance, vetoed the legislation which authorized that research as well. But if using embryos for scientific research is "murder", isn't it hypocritical to use as his "poster children" (literally) kids whose very existence owes to similar "murders" in the past? If he actually had some sort of deep-set belief on the issue, he would at most acknowledge that the beautiful children around him were a blessing, but the manner in which they were conceived was based on a history of embryonic genocide. I'd completely disagree with him, but at least he'd be intellectually honest with himself and the public (something I'm convinced he's incapable of).

Here's a thought experiment: an in-vitro fertilization clinic is on fire. In the freezer there are 10,000 embryos, and in the lobby there is a small child. You have limited time, so you must choose to either save the embryos and allow the girl to perish, or save the girl and sacrifice the embryos. Which do you choose?

Give the girl leukemia, or spina bifida, or MS, and that's exactly the choice that has been made. Congress (and the majority of the US population) chose the girl, President Bush chose the embryos.