by Bill Fancher and Jody Brown
(AgapePress) – One disabled American earnestly desires that science could find a cure for people like herself — but not at the cost of killing unborn babies.
Mary Jane Owens, executive director of the National Catholic Office for Persons with Disabilities, has been a strong advocate for the rights of the disabled and for research that could help end crippling disabilities. But unlike Hollywood advocates like Christopher Reeve and Mary Tyler Moore — who go to the nation's capital to encourage embryonic stem cell research — Owens opposes getting stem cells from human embryos and then destroying them.
“It's a shock to anyone to develop any disability,” Owens says, “but I have never felt that it is appropriate to sacrifice the life of any other person for my benefit or … for the benefit of any other individual.”
Owens says she disagrees “wholeheartedly” with Reeve and Moore on their promotion of using human embryos for gathering stem cells. She says their stance is not ethical.
“There are certain things about this country that are more valuable … than any of our individual lives — and that's a sense of morality, a sense of every person having the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” she says. “To deprive our smallest brothers and sisters of the opportunity to fulfill their potential in this world is … certainly odious beyond belief.”
Owens herself is blind, has partial hearing loss, and is confined to a wheelchair due to neurological and spinal impairments. Before a Senate subcommittee in April 2000, she stated that while disabled people are interested in cures, better tools for living, and greater inclusion in society, “we are not so desperate for cures that moral considerations disappear.” She urged the committee member not to use the struggles and aspirations of disabled Americans “to justify an immoral policy that will encourage the destruction of unborn babies.”
Owens is one of many disabled advocates who are joining in support of Representative Chris Smith's new bill calling for funding stem cell research on adult cells and those obtained from umbilical cords and the placenta following a live birth.
The NCPD, established in 1982, is based at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
Crossover in Congress on Stem Cell Research Using Unborn Children
by Rusty Pugh
(AgapePress) – The issue of embryonic stem cell research is not necessarily a pro-life/pro-abortion battle. Some who call themselves pro-life support the use of human embryos for research.
The coming legislative battle over the stem cell research is fairly well-defined. There are those who believe that human embryos should be used for medical research, and other who believe that doing so is wrong because it destroys a human life. Legislation by Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey would provide more money for adult stem cell research, while a counter-proposal by Representative Jim McDermott of Washington would change federal law to allow tax dollars to pay for the practice.
Pat Trueman is director of governmental affairs for the American Family Association. He says the debate does not break down strictly along pro-life/pro-abortion lines.
“You do have some pro-life members of Congress — like Duke Cunningham of California and some others — who have been persuaded that there's no other possibility to solve medical problems than to use human embryos,” Trueman says. “Of course, we know that's not true, but they've been convinced and [have] given their promise that they will support the experimentation of and ultimately the destruction of human embryos for research.”
At the same time, Trueman says there are some on the pro-abortion side who do not believe unborn children should be used for medical research.
