May 15, 2009
How to oppose the ‘Create to Kill’ policy for embryonic stem cells
By EMILY SNIPES (Catholic Charities)
Many of you may have seen the new action alert issued by the USCCB (United States Con-ference of Catholic Bishops) regarding the guidelines for stem cell research. On March 9, President Obama announced an executive order that will allow the National Institutes for Health (NIH), for the first time, to use federal tax dollars toward the destruction of living embryonic human beings, all in the name of research.
The draft guidelines proposed by the NIH are open for public comment through May 26, 2009. A similar policy was approved but never implemented by the Clinton administration in 2000. However, the Clinton policy was limited to embryos that had been previously frozen to allow parents ample time to consider the decision before donating them for scientific research. The Bush administration placed restrictions on federally financed human embryonic stem cell research.
These new guidelines are much broader and would allow the destruction of recently created embryos that have never been frozen. This of course will increase the possibility of rushed consent. Several politicians in-cluding Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colorado) and Michael Castle (R-Deleware) have stated they will endorse legislation that goes beyond the guidelines.
The opposing argument from supporters of this agenda continues to be that this only in-volves embryos that would have been discarded and that provision against this research deprives science of the ability to treat debilitating diseases. Af-ter more than a decade of re-search, embryonic stem cells have never been used to treat a human being. Animal trials sug-gest they are too genetically un-stable and likely to form lethal tumors. The price is killing living human embryos.
Adult stem cells have helped thousands of people including patients with Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, heart damage and many other conditions. Adult stem cells are readily available within bone marrow, umbilical cord blood and tissues and organs.
In support of ethical cures and treatments using stem cells the USCCB is supporting a campaign launched by its partner organization, the National Com-mittee for a Human Life Amend-ment (NCHLA). The campaign homepage (http://www.usccb.org/stemcellcampaign) provides a summary of the proposed guidelines and illustrates why they are unacceptable. The U.S. bishops have released a statement encouraging people to contact Congress and the NIH. Online there is a link to send an e-mail to your local senators and representatives.
Also included is a video of Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, critiquing the drafted guidelines. Rigali states, “The Catholic bishops of the United States will be writing to Congress and the Administration about the need to restore and maintain barriers against the mistreatment of human life in the name of science, and we urge other concerned citizens to do the same.”
The first rule of the Hippocratic oath in medicine and science used to be, “above all, do no harm.” Clearly we have stepped far away from that oath and started down a path where human life is an expendable commodity. The only difference between an embryo and a newborn baby is 270 days.
Given the recent controversy over the birth of octuplets in California we clearly need more restrictions and guidelines to protect human life, not fewer. This case represented a collision of ethics and an unregulated reproductive industry. Fertility researchers continue to see the current climate as an opportunity to use federal money for their work in reproduction and view destruction of human lives as part of the process to finding cures.
It is appalling that some members of Congress are supporting and encouraging the deliberate use of in vitro fertilization or cloning, to produce human embryos for stem cell research. Such creation of new life solely to destroy it would indicate that we are using science to kill lives in order to cure them. The track our culture is on right now is leading towards practicing science without a conscience as the new oath.
I encourage you to visit the USCCB link and contact local officials asking them to oppose deconstructive stem cell re-search. By all means we should pursue aggressive research with adult stem cells, but we should not deliberately kill one living human to possibly benefit another.