Mitt Romney tried to dodge a question on embryonic stem-cell research, but Chris Matthews asked the tough questions. Again, Mitt flopped. Last night he said:

MODERATOR: And you won’t take any from these fertility clinics to use either?

ROMNEY: I’m happy to allow that to — or I shouldn’t say happy.It’s fine for that to be allowed, to be legal. I won’t use our government funds for that. Instead, I want our governments to be used on Dr. Hurlbut’s method, which is altered nuclear transfer.

However, he wrote in the Boston Globe (see my previous post), when he vetoed a stem-cell bill:

Some stem cells today are obtained from surplus embryos from in-vitro fertilization. I support that research, provided that those embryos are obtained after a rigorous parental consent process … Known as altered nuclear transfer, this method could allow researchers to obtain embryonic stem cells without the moral shortcut of cloning and destroying a human embryo.

A bill that includes methods such as these and bans all human cloning would receive my full support.

In other words, he said he would fund IVF leftover research. Now he won’t.


Soren Dayton

Soren Dayton is an advocacy professional in Washington, DC who has worked in policy, politics, and in human rights, including in India. Soren grew up in Chicago.