THE PERILS OF THE PERSONAL:

Nancy Reagan Fights Bush Over Stem Cells (ALESSANDRA STANLEY, September 29, 2002, NY Times)

Last year Mr. Bush sharply limited such research. At 81, the former first lady is obliquely but persistently campaigning - through friends, advisers, lawmakers and her own well-placed calls and letters - to reverse the president's decision.

Mrs. Reagan believes that embryonic stem cell research could uncover a cure for Alzheimer's, the disease that has wiped out her husband's memory. She was dismayed, friends say, when the White House took issue on Monday with a new California law that encourages embryonic stem cell research.

Her advisers say Mrs. Reagan's sense of decorum and party loyalty inhibit her from publicly challenging a Republican president. [...]

As first lady, Mrs. Reagan was not always popular; White House aides feared her, and even many Republicans were put off by her preoccupation with fashion, high society and astrology.

Her reclusive, unswerving devotion to her husband has mollified her detractors. Once Mr. Reagan fell ill, Mrs. Reagan stopped going to parties. She now rarely leaves her Bel Air mansion and allows no visitors. Mrs. Reagan told Mr. Wallace that her life was lonely.

"Because really, you know, when you come right down to it, you're in it alone. And there's nothing that anybody can do for you."

Her oldest friends, however, have joined her campaign against the disease that has stricken her husband.

A Republican legislator recently told Michael Deaver, a Reagan adviser and confidant, that some conservatives contend that Ronald Reagan would never have approved of embryonic stem cell research. Mr. Deaver said he retorted, "Ronald Reagan didn't have to take care of Ronald Reagan for the last 10 years."

While we can admire Mrs. Reagan her devotion to the President and sympathize with what she's been through, there's something repellant about the idea that Mr. Reagan would jettison his moral beliefs merely to help himself and his wife. No matter how excruciating the last decade has been for him and his beloved wife, precisely how many embryos does Mr. Deaver think Mr. Reagan would have been willing to sacrifice to make these years better: 1?; 10?, 10,000?; 1,000,000?; 10,000,000?. The very idea seems unworthy of the man. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 29, 2002 7:55 AM