Newly-Confirmed Obama Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein Pro-Abortion, Pro-Cloning

Bioethics   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 15, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Newly-Confirmed Obama Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein Pro-Abortion, Pro-Cloning

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 15
, 2009

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The Senate recently approved Cass Sunstein as President Obama’s new regulatory czar and, like other members of the administration, more information is coming out about his anti-life views after the fact. Sunstein was confirmed by the Senate last week as administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Now, reports indicate Sunstein holds pro-abortion and pro-human cloning views that are upsetting for the majority of Americans who are pro-life.

In a 2003 review of the book "Our Posthuman Future" by Francis Fukuyama, Sunstein confirmed he has little regard for developing human life in the womb.

He said there need not be any regard for unborn children in their earliest days because human embryos are "only a handful of cells."

"If scientists will be using and cloning embryos only at a very early stage when they are just a handful of cells (say, before they are four days old), there is no good reason for a ban (on cloning)," he wrote, according to a WorldNetDaily report.

"It is silly to think that ‘potential’ is enough for moral concern. Sperm cells have ‘potential’ and (not to put too fine a point on it) most people are not especially solicitous about them," he continued.

That is despite the fact that sperm cells are not unique human beings like human embryos and have no potential to grow and be birthed after approximately nine months.

WND’s review of Sunstein’s 17-page article shows him scoffing at those who have moral problems with human cloning.

"Moral repugnance might well be a response to vaguely remembered science fiction stories or horror movies, or to perceptions based on ignorance and confusion (as in the idea that a clone is a complete "copy" of the original, or a "copy" that is going to be evil)," he wrote.

Although he eventually wrote that there is no moral right to human cloning, Sunstein says states should make it so their laws allow the practice.

The pro-life group Eagle Forum also released analysis of Sunstein’s positions and determined that he regards euthanasia as a major component of health care legislation and supports loosening regulations on organ donation.

In the article WND covered, Eagle Forum notes Sunstein advocates for government bureaucracy to rely on the “value of a statistical life year” when doing cost-benefit analysis as opposed to the “value of a statistical life.” That would lead to health care decisions involving rationing and euthanasia.

He states that this would “likely result in significantly lower [health] benefits calculations for elderly people, and significantly higher benefits calculations for children.”

He states: “I urge that the government should indeed focus on life-years rather than lives. A program that saves young people produces more welfare than one that saves old people.”

The group concludes, "Sunstein’s views on cost-effectiveness analysis is worrisome at best, especially since as head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, he will play a major role in defining the government’s handling of health care."

‘He will be just one major player in the massive bureaucracy needed to regulate the very loosely-defined H.R. 3200, Obama’s proposed health care plan," it says.

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