“There is never a reason to kill a person for the sake of scientific progress,” Father Joseph Howard, Jr., executive director of the American Bioethics Advisory Commission, said today in urging President Bush to ban the harvesting of human embryonic stem cells and to ban embryonic stem cell research. A March 15 deadline for the president to impose such a ban is drawing near.
Father Howard said this cell harvesting is “abortion performed under a microscope. When the pluripotent stem cells are removed from an embryonic person, the result is the death of that person. The embryonic person is literally magnified so that he can be killed and his stem cells harvested. If Bush wants to make good on his promise to reduce the number of abortions, then he must act quickly to ban this grisly activity.”
Bush spokespersons have said the president opposes paying for the harvesting of stem cells from embryonic humans with federal funds. Bush has not, however, expressed any opposition to federal funding for research with stem cells taken from deceased embryonic persons. Moreover, National Institute of Health guidelines allow scientists to kill embryonic persons to harvest their stem cells.
“The federal funding of stem cell research effectively creates a demand to generate and destroy human lives,” Father Howard said. “It really does not matter who pays for the killing. A pro-life president must do everything in his power to stop all killing of embryonic persons.”
Release issued: 12 Feb 01
