by Jody Brown and Bill Fancher
(AgapePress) – To the apparent surprise of no one but the White House, the subject of embryonic stem cell research came up Monday when President Bush and the Pope met in Italy.
In the President's first face-to-face meeting with Pope John Paul II, the pontiff urged Bush to reject research on human embryos, calling it an example of the “tragic coarsening of consciences [accompanying] the assault on innocent human life in the world.” The 81-year-old leader of the Catholic Church, reading from a prepared text, said America “must reject practices that devalue and violate human life at any stage, from conception to natural death.”
Associated Press calls the Pope's statements “an unwelcome surprise” for White House officials, who say they did not expect the issue to come up. The news service also reports Bush may have been taken aback as well because, according to Bush, the Pope did not bring up the subject during the private meeting that preceded the public remarks.
The President was respectful, but noncommittal, to the Pope's statements, saying he will “take that point of view into consideration” as he tries to “balance value and respect for life with the promise of science and the hope of saving life.” The President must soon announce his decision on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, a process that requires killing of human embryos.
Meanwhile, the National Institutes of Health has come forward with a study supporting the use of human embryos to harvest stem cells. Unlike the President's reaction to the Pope's statements, Judie Brown of the American Life League was not surprised by the NIH report that was released late last week.
“NIH is a totally politicized entity. They are guided by the National Bioethics Advisory Commission — Clinton's crowd — and they make decisions based on politics and money,” Brown says. “They have … no concern for moral absolutes at all.”
Brown urged people across the United States to call the White House at (202) 456-1414 or e-mail the president at president@whitehouse.gov in an effort to sway him away from federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
More on Cloning
Concerned Women for America says that while America awaits Bush's decision on embryonic stem cell research, its elected officials have a chance to protect the nation by making a wise ethical decision on cloning legislation. Noting that recent news reports indicate the stem cell research will involve cloning technologies, Wendy Wright of CWA says it is important Congress notice that scientists are crossing boundaries currently being debated.
“Researchers want to create life in order to destroy it for experimentation,” Wright says. “This is clearly wrong.” She says the work being done by a Massachusetts-based bio-tech firm, which has made attempts to clone humans, will only lead to a greater misunderstanding of the value of human life. Wright says “human life cannot be considered something to toy with for our own convenience.”
The Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2001 (HR 2505) passed out of subcommittee last week to the House Judiciary Committee. The legislation, sponsored by Congressman Dave Weldon of Florida, a physician and Army veteran, would ban human cloning while permitting replication of DNA, cells, or tissues for experimental or therapeutic purposes. The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to debate the legislation today.
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
