By John Zavrel
Ron Reagan, son of formerPresident Ronald Reagan and an outspoken critic of the Bushadministration, will address the Democratic convention on July 27,2004, in support of stem-cell research.
Reagan, who lives in Seattle with his wife Doria,a clinical psychologist, said that he "had a nice chat" on the phonewith Kerry about the invitation. Reagan, who is 46 years old, is aregistered independent. He said that President Bush "has made someterrible mistakes," most notably, attacking Iraq, Reagan also opposesBush's stand on stem-cell research. He said that he would vote forKerry, however, "as a way to defeat Bush."
Reagan and his mother, Nancy Reagan, arepassionate advocates for stem-cell research, which could lead to acure for Alzheimer's disease, among other disorders. After a 10-yearbattle against Alzheimer's, Ronald Reagan died June 5 at age 93."This gives me a platform to educate people about stem-cellresearch," Reagan said. "The conservative right has a rathersimplistic way of characterizing it as baby killing. We're nottalking about fingers and toes and brains. This is a mass of a couplehundred undifferentiated cells."
The Democratic Party's platform calls for liftingrestrictions on research using stem cells from human embryos. Bushsigned an executive order in August 2001 that limited federal help tofinancing stem-cell research on embryonic stem-cell lines then inexistence. He said such a limit would not require the destruction ofany more embryos.
Ron Reagan said that he would not attend theplanned tribute to his father at the Republican convention, which isplanned to take place between August 30--September 2, 2004 in NewYork.
"The Republican Party now is not the RepublicanParty of my father. "I don't think, in good conscience, I could takethe chance that somebody could read that as an endorsement of thisadministration," he said. "I'll support any viable candidate who candefeat Bush."
Copyright 2004 West Art, Prometheus 93