Right-Wing Ad Tries To Frighten Minorities By Comparing Embryonic Stem Cell Research To Tuskegee Study

Up for consideration in Michigan is Proposal 2, a measure to permit embryonic stem cell research. As the NIH has outlined, embryonic stem cells offer the most promise for medical breakthroughs. Currently, Michigan has some of the nation’s most restrictive stem cell laws. In its endorsement of Proposal 2, the Detroit News wrote:

Michigan has one of the leading stem cell research centers at the University of Michigan, but scientists there worry that the embryonic stem cell research ban will damage its ability to continue to recruit top researchers. Doug Engel, a professor of cell and developmental biology at the university and head of the department, notes that one of his colleagues, a top stem cell biologist, has already left the university for California because of Michigan’s current laws. [...]

Sean Morrison, who is head of the university’s Center for Stem Cell Biology, has often noted that under current law, it is legal in Michigan for fertility clinics to discard human embryos, but not to use them for medical research to try and help patients. That makes no sense.

Right-wing opponents of the measure have resorted to desperate, “shameless” fear-mongering. A new ad compares embryonic stem cell research to the Tuskegee study, which the Detroit Free Press calls “horribly offensive, race-baiting.” Watch the ad:

There is no comparison between embryonic stem cell research and the horrific Tuskegee study. In the early part of the 20th century, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) took 400 African-American men suffering from syphilis — most of them poor — and promised them “special free treatment.” However, for 40 years, PHS not only withheld treatment so that they could study the disease, but they prevented other agencies from helping them.

As the Free Press notes, the purpose of this comparison is solely “to frighten minority communities into voting against Prop 2 by drawing a false connection with past abuse.” This ad is similar to other dangerous right-wing comparisons, such as James Dobson likening embryonic stem cell research to Nazi experiments. Cure Michigan has more facts on Proposal 2 here.