The disease advocacy lobby is a force to be reckoned with, and its members are having a strong influence on the rapidly approaching elections. Analysts and pundits are underestimating their power, says Art Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.
What the pundits are missing is that the stem cell issue is not just a matter of a tiny interest group pushing its pet agenda. The emerging new interest is not only capable of raising money to support pro-embryonic stem cell research candidates, but perhaps of delivering crucial votes on Nov. 7 and beyond.
Caplan says what made Rush Limbaugh more crazy than usual (to go so far as to mock someone with a devastating illness), was that Fox’s ad is so powerful.
And that speaks to the power of an enormous group of voters: people who suffer from or have family members suffering from nearly every disease or ailment under the sun: Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes, spinal cord injury, you name it. Scientists are increasingly delivering results indicating that patients' lives might be improved by stem cell research. We're talking millions and millions of highly motivated and organized voters.
