WASHINGTON, Feb 22, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Advanced Cell Technology Inc. (ACT) has managed to get 80 U.S. Nobel laureates to sign a letter to President George W. Bush urging him to continue the Clinton-sanctioned federal funding of destructive embryonic stem cell research. In 1998, the Massachusetts company announced that it had created a live human-animal hybrid by fusing a human somatic cell with an egg from a cow. ACT President and CEO Michael West and an ACT colleague Tovert Lanza drafted and circulated the letter to Bush and had it faxed to the White House this morning.
Funding for embryonic stem cell research is contentious since live human embryos used for this research are killed in the process. The lobby letter argues that since left over, unused embryos created for in-vitro fertilization are discarded, using them in the destructive research is acceptable. “While we recognize the legitimate ethical issues raised by this research, it is important to understand that the cells being used in this research were destined to be discarded in any case,” the letter said. “Under these circumstances, it would be tragic to waste this opportunity to pursue the work that could potentially alleviate human suffering.”
The funds for such research were only to be released after March 15, leaving the new Administration time to consider the matter. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson is currently reviewing the funding. Thompson has previously come out in favour of such funding, but the companies involved in the destructive research fear that President Bush may nix it by executive order.
The letter admits that there are alternate ethical forms of stem cell research involving adult cells, but fails to mention that cells from umbilical cords are also available. It adds that such research is years behind the use of embryonic stem cells, hence the signors believe that their demands for the use of embryonic stem cells are warranted. In their defence, they also point out that the use of cells from aborted babies in various common human virus vaccines “such as measles, rubella, hepatitis A, rabies and poliovirus” have established a “precedent for the use of fetal tissue that would otherwise be discarded.”
Richard Doerflinger, of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, reacted to the news telling the Washington Post: “Nobody ever said these Nobel prizes are for ethics.” Meanwhile the American Family Association and other pro-life groups are encouraging all those concerned for life to write President Bush and Mr. Thompson asking them to end the funding for destructive research with human embryos.
Update on Boy Scouts of America and Loss of Funding
WASHINGTON, Feb 22, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Despite winning their case at the U.S. Supreme Court, The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) are continuing to feel
pressure over their policy banning homosexual scoutmasters. A recent article by Jon Dougherty of WorldNetDaily (WND) notes that certain chapters of the United Way, and corporations like Levi Strauss, Wells Fargo, and the Knight Ridder news service have banned funding to the Scouts. Nevertheless, the BSA has about 5 million youths and 1.2 million adults actively involved in its programs.
While some religious groups such as various United Churches and Reform Jewish leaders have quit the BSA for the pro-family policy, many others have strengthened their support. WND reports that legislators in three states — Arizona, Georgia and Washington — have introduced measures to prevent public entities from denying funding or free use of public facilities to BSA troops. Moreover, the BSA has the support of U.S. President George W. Bush.
During his campaign, Bush voiced support for the Scouts, criticizing a government memo indicating that then-President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore supported a federal effort to sever or restrict ties with the BSA. “I am troubled by this memo appearing to suggest that the Clinton-Gore administration might sever the federal government's long-standing relationship with the Boy Scouts of America,” Bush said.
At issue is the 91-year-old BSA promise “to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.”
Faithful Pro-Lifer Making a Difference; Abortionist Could Face Prison Time
by Bill Fancher and Robin Burchfield
(AgapePress) – Recently there have been massive demonstrations at the Supreme Court building in Washington over the Florida recount and Roe v. Wade decision.
But after those demonstrators and the media are gone, there is usually one lone figure in front of the court with his signs almost every day of the year. That man is Dan Martino, a pro-lifer who has been at the Court since 1989 speaking for the unborn.
Does he get discouraged all by himself? He says not on your life. “One person can make a difference because one with the Lord Jesus is a majority,” he says.
Sometimes Martino will be holding a rough-hewn cross. Other times he will hold a replica of an unborn baby, and still other times he is just holding his signs urging the Court to end the killing of the innocent.
Meanwhile, a Florida abortionist has been convicted of extortion. Dr. James Pendergraft was found guilty of trying to extort money from Marion County, Florida, officials. Family News in Focus reports he specifically tried to force them to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for allegedly threatening his Ocala, Florida, clinic. Reportedly, the prosecution presented a recording of Pendergraft threatening to bankrupt the county and erect a statue of himself in the town square.
The conviction quickly drew reaction from the pro-life community in Florida. Ed Szymkowiak of Stop Planned Parenthood International says the case is just one more example of what the abortion business is all about — not women’s health, but money.
Florida Right to Life Director Lynda Bell rebuked claims by Pendergraft that he was convicted because he was an abortionist. Bell said he was convicted of extortion, not for doing abortions, and he needs to remember that and so does the public.
Pendergraft’s attorneys have announced they plan to appeal the decision. If the conviction stands, Pendergraft could face up to 30 years in prison.
Canadian Catholic Organizations Condemn Embryo Research
OTTAWA, Feb 22, 2001 (LSN.ca) – A document on Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation released Feb 20 by the Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF) and the Catholic Health Association of Canada (CHAC) states unequivocally that research with embryonic stem cells is illicit as far as the church is concerned.
“Notwithstanding the great potential for good, the retrieval of [embryonic stem] cells is morally unacceptable because it results in the death of the embryo,” the document reads. “Catholic teaching holds that the embryo is a human being and must be treated as a person. How can we create life and then destroy it? A human person, including the embryo, must never be used as a means to an end.” Such moral clarification is necessary in light of the ongoing conflict in research circles over the use of embryonic stem cells to find solutions to ailments such as Parkinson's.
The document also affirms that the “Church is strongly in favor of organ and tissue donation and transplantation.” It stipulates that “Vital organs that occur singly in the body (e.g., the heart) can be removed only after death.”
Produced as a leaflet, “Giving Something of Ourselves,” says, “the donor's consent must have been well informed and freely given in advance, in writing or in discussion. In the absence of this consent, the consent of the family or proxy is needed.” Moreover, “there must be moral certainty that the donor is dead.”
Going further, in a quote attributed to Pope John Paul II, the document reads: “the criterion adopted in more recent times for ascertaining the fact of death, namely the complete and irreversible cessation of all brain activity, if rigorously applied, does not seem to conflict with the essential elements of a sound anthropology. Therefore, a health worker professionally responsible for ascertaining death can use these criteria in each individual case as the basis for arriving at that degree of assurance in ethical judgment which moral teaching describes as 'moral certainty.'” (Pope John Paul II. “Cloning, involving use and destruction of human embryos is morally unacceptable.” L'Osservatore Romano no. 35 (1657) 30 August 2000: p. 1.)
(This update courtesy of LifeSite Daily News.)
