Please, Mr. Bush... Just be Consistent

Bush, the ethicist-in-chief

IN A BRIEF ceremony in the East Room of the White House on June 2, President Bush vetoed legislation permitting federally funded embryonic stem cell research, declaring, "Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical."

So what are we to make of Principled George's penchant for executing human beings in unparalleled numbers during his term as governor of Texas? He's on record as saying capital punishment serves as a deterrent of possible future murders and rapes, which sounds an awful lot like he's following a principle that says, "It's OK to take a human life in the hope of saving another human life." And that just doesn't seem to gel with his lofty pronouncement that, "Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical." Actually, it sounds more like its opposite.