Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Government should fund new stem-cell research lines
President Bush has promised to veto a bill expanding embryonic stem-cell research. It’s a mistake — and a potential missed opportunity to ease a great deal of human suffering through medical research. Moreover, if the government does nothing, the embryos will still be destroyed.
The bill at issue would allow federal funding for research using frozen embryos that are now stored at fertility clinics and are scheduled to be destroyed.
Under a policy announced by President Bush in 2001, only a limited number of embryonic stem-cell lines that existed as of Aug. 9, 2001, are allowed for research.
Bush is adhering to his pro-life position. But the embryos at issue will be destroyed even if they are not used for research. How does failing to take advantage of a research opportunity before the embryos are destroyed constitute an anti-life position, while destroying the embryos without using them for research is somehow pro-life?
It makes no sense. And even some conservative, pro-life Republicans agree.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee believes that life begins at conception. But Frist, a heart surgeon, supports the research use of embryos that are “100 percent” certain to be destroyed.
“We have learned that
fewer than the anticipated number of cell lines have proved suitable for research,” Frist said, “and I feel that the limit on cell lines available for federally funded research is too restrictive.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said, “I will put my pro-life track record up against anyone inside or outside of Congress. I believe that being pro-life involves helping the living. Regenerative medicine is pro-life and pro-family. It enhances, it does not diminish human life.”
There is a difference between creating new embryos to harvest stem cells and using embryos that would otherwise be destroyed.
Scientists should research all types of stem cells. And that includes those now stored at fertility clinics and slated for destruction.
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