by Gary Bauer
While the White House continues to hesitate, the assault on human life is accelerating in the nation's labs. Late yesterday, the astonishing and grotesque announcement was made that scientists in a Virginia lab had intentionally created 50 human embryos for the sole purpose of killing them by extracting cells for research.
Do you see how slippery this slope is? Up to now the argument has been “Why not let scientists use the 'excess' embryos in fertility clinics – they are going to be destroyed anyway?” Now we have already moved beyond that to creating human beings so that we can destroy them.
In 1994, a deeply divided government panel recommended allowing such ghoulish experiments and even Bill Clinton, the man with no identifiable moral center, immediately rejected the idea. It was too obscene even for him. Six years later a pro-life administration has not been able to date to bring itself to make a decision.
(You may visit Mr. Bauer's Campaign for Working Families website by clicking here.)
Pro-Life Leaders Hope Bush Stands Firmly Against Embryonic Research
by Jody Brown, Rusty Pugh, and Allie Martin
(AgapePress) – A national pro-life leader is warning against the ramifications of stem cell research that kills human embryos — and expressing disappointment at the lack of backbone among supposed pro-life advocates in the Republican Party.
An announcement is expected soon from the Bush Administration regarding embryonic stem cell research. The President is expected to issue an official stance on whether his administration will allow taxpayer dollars to subsidize the research that extracts stem cells from unborn babies, which are then destroyed. Dr. James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family, says “the lives of countless tiny babies” are at stake.
“The White House seems to be leaning toward approving funding for [embryonic] stem cell research — despite the fact that the President has said that he is unequivocally pro-life,” Dobson said on his national broadcast today. The pro-family author and psychologist called on his organization's constituency to contact the President and their members of Congress, saying “if we begin to kill babies [using federal funding], there is no stopping where this goes.”
While commending the efforts of several pro-life House members for their stand against the anti-life policy — notably Majority Leader Dick Armey, Majority Whip Tom DeLay, and Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts — Dobson said he is disappointed with supposed pro-life senators who have voiced their support for embryonic stem cell research.
“I am really surprised by the position that [Orrin Hatch of Utah] has taken,” Dobson said. “I do hope that Senator Hatch knows better. You have to kill the embryo in order to extract these stem cells — that is not about life. That is about death.” Dobson included Senators Strom Thurmond of North Carolina and Trent Lott of Mississippi among those in whom he is disappointed.
Dobson also noted if Bush does not oppose federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, it would be a “major departure” from campaign promises Bush made.
Meanwhile, one leading pro-life activist says President Bush has no choice, and that he must oppose the use of human embryos in medical research. American Life League president Judie Brown says on this issue, there is no gray area.
“There is only one so-called 'pro-life position,' ” Brown says. “A human being exists at fertilization; he or she is a person; and the human embryo is being destroyed for the sake of taking the stem cells. That is killing — it is direct killing — and the President really has no choice.”
Brown is angered by supposed pro-life supporters' use of the term “potential human being.”
“A human being exists,” she says. “The potential is experienced, and the human being is. And to describe that person as a 'potential human being' is the most eugenic, anti-life statement I've ever heard. It is certainly not anything a true pro-lifer would ever utter.”
Brown notes that even some abortion proponents are opposed to embryonic stem cell research. She also says if Bush does not take the strong pro-life position on this issue, her group will work to see that he is defeated.
The debate over the use of stem cells from human embryos is being fueled by a revelation today that scientists in Virginia are using embryos made only for research. The Washington Post reports that scientists at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Norfolk are the first in the world to harvest stem cells from human embryos that were created specifically for research, then destroyed to retrieve the cells. The newspaper says until now, researchers had derived stem cells from embryos that had been donated from fertility clinics.
According to The Post, the creation of embryos for the sole purpose of destroying them for their stem cells is in direct conflict with recent recommendations of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission and the National Institutes of Health.
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
