Right To Life Committee Working to Defeat Stem Cell Research Bills
By Jim Burns
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
July 02, 2001

Charlotte, N.C. (CNSNews.com) - The National Right To Life
Committee's legislative director is calling on members to mount
a massive grassroots effort to defeat bills in Congress
supporting stem cell research.

Speaking Saturday at the NRLC's annual convention in Charlotte,
Douglas Johnson said the main issue is whether federal funds
should be used for "embryo destructive research."

"The media wants to cast it as a question of being for or against
stem cell research. That is not really the issue," Johnson told
convention delegates. "It's not really the stem cells that are the
focus of the argument. It's where they come from.

The controversial type of research requires the killing of human
embryos and that is what we object to."

Johnson noted that a law passed in 1996 (the Dickey amendment)
prohibits federal funding of any research in which human embryos
are harmed.

Congress is expected to vote on the stem cell research legislation
some time this fall. One of the bills, introduced by Sen. Arlen Specter
(R-Pa.), would allow federal funding of stem cell research.

Johnson called Sen. Specter a pro-abortion advocate who is
"vehemently in favor of federal funding of embryo destructive
research"

Johnson said Specter wants federal funds to be used "to obtain
and kill human embryos to get their stem cells so that they can be
used for research." This could happen soon, Johnson said, now
that Democrats control the Senate's legislative agenda.

Specter introduced the legislation last April. He said he supports
federal funding for stem cell research, given its potential to cure
Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, spinal cord injury, heart disease, perhaps
cancer, and many other diseases. According to a statement on
Specter's website, "Some scientists believe that stem cell research
could lead to tangible benefits to Parkinson's Disease patients in
as soon as 7 to 10 years."

Specter's legislation, which is co-sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin
(D-Iowa), stipulates that any federally-funded stem cell research
would have to be done using only those embryos "which would
otherwise be discarded from in-vitro fertilization clinics, with the
expressed consent of the donating families." Under Specter's bill,
fertility clinic "leftovers" would be the only "narrow and specific
source" of stem cells.

Specter also thinks it's necessary to "liberate medical researchers
from any restrictions on the use of discarded embryos and fetal
tissue to produce stem cells."

The NRLC prefers legislation being proposed by Sen. Sam
Brownback (R-Kansas), who considers federally funded embryonic
stem-cell research "illegal, immoral and unnecessary."

"Taxpayer funding of this research is problematic for a variety
of reasons," said Brownback during a floor speech in June.
"First among those concerns is that, if Congress were to approve
[Specter's] bill, it would officially declare for the first time in our
nation's history that government may exploit and destroy human
life for its own, or somebody else's purposes."

According to Brownback, stem cell research involving human
embryos is unnecessary. "There are legitimate areas of research
which are showing more promise than embryonic stem cell research,
areas which do not create moral and ethical difficulties."

He advocates more research into stem cells harvested from adults.

"New advances in adult stem cell research, being reported almost
weekly, show more promise than destructive embryo research, and
I believe should receive a significant increase in [federal] funding,"
said Brownback.

Brownback said it's important to continue the fight to help cure
disease and alleviate suffering.

However, he said, "It is never acceptable to deliberately kill one
innocent human being in order to help another. When did it become
acceptable to use an evil means to pursue a good end, even a great
one? Doesn't the so-called good end actually become bad by using
bad means?" he asked.

If curing disease means killing the "most defenseless and innocent
of human beings, we will rightfully be judged harshly by history as
having sought some benefits at the expense of our humanity and
moral being," he concluded.

President Bush is expected to decide very soon whether to allow
federal dollars to fund medical research using stem cells from
human embryos.

Although he has said he personally opposes the use of human
embryos, the president faces strong pressure from patients' groups
and biotech companies to reverse the current ban on federal funding
for stem cell research.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200107\CUL20010702a.html

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