Most of us know there is a difference between human cloning and a restricted use of discarded pluripotent stem cells to research for cures to currently incurable diseases which cause told and untold human suffering.

So how is it possible that Sen Buehrer really considers his constituency so stupid that they do not know the difference? That he must combine the acceptable with the unacceptable in order to save the people of Ohio from having to think?

How is it possible especially in a time of extreme financial crisis in so many states, Ohio certainly high on that list, that Sen B would make the decision that his assumption of the mental simplicity of his fellow Ohioans is an excuse to throw the baby out with the bath water. By denying the strength of our medical research institutions and their ability to follow the NIH Guidelines for stem cell research he exercises that assumption. Although those guidelines are overly restrictive and certainly a scientific disappointment, they should satisfy all but the most extreme.

Does Sen Buehrer think that Ohioans are too dumb to reason? Does he enjoy human suffering that could be ameliorated? Does he want to see productive people without employment, does he not care about the revenues that can accrue to the state as the result of legitimate scientific research? Would he prefer to live in a different era, perhaps to be called Kaiser instead of Senator?

Or is he confused? Confused about the real science? The differences between politics and religion? Confused about the intelligence of the people of Ohio, the need to find cures on our home turf without outsourcing? Confused about real ethical issues?

Senator Buehrer doesn’t appear to understand who the people of Ohio really are.

Ohioans are farm people who developed Parkinson’s disease with insecticide/herbicide/pesticide exposure. They are diabetics, cancer patients; they have ALS, MS, spinal cord injuries. They are children with muscular dystrophies who may never see adulthood without cures. They are our parents with Alzheimer’s disease. They are people who do care and think and reason. People from everywhere in the world emigrated to Ohio with the hope of finding a better life with more freedom. None of them are here with the expectation that a small mind could destroy their hope for a future because he thought they were too stupid to understand…

It is not the people of Ohio who are too simple-minded.