The LA Times applauds Dr. Frist’s support of stem cell research

“IT WAS HEARTENING to see Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) take the issue of stem cell research a moderate step forward, even if his reasons for doing so displayed his inner struggle between what the doctor knows to be true and what the politician senses to be helpful.

Frist gave in to the latter a few months ago. Quite ridiculously, he relied upon his background as a transplant surgeon to dispute the findings of Terri Schiavo’s doctors, giving his diagnosis-by-video that the brain-damaged woman was not in a persistent vegetative state. This may have been the low point of Frist’s medical career, but it was part of a strategy to curry favor with social conservatives who play an important role in presidential primaries.

Frist was on firmer ground last week as he supported a bill that would allow federal funding for expanded stem cell research. His background, as he noted, has given him considerable experience in the difficult medical questions of when life ends, and these questions are resolved not by ideology but by thoughtful discussion within an “ethical construct.”

I also join the applause – it’s nice to see a physician in politics think for himself.