CMDA: Numerous Ethical Issues Plague Embryonic Stem-Cell Research
by Jenni Parker and Mary Rettig
May 24, 2005
(AgapePress) - The executive director of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) is urging U.S. lawmakers to vote against a bill that would relaxing restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research when they meet today.President Bush has already said he will veto HR 810, the legislation now before the House of Representatives, if Congress passes it. That bill would lift his 2001 ban on new federally funded research on embryonic stem cells, thereby allowing the taxpayer-subsidized destruction of human embryos.
Some support for HR 810 has come from liberal lawmakers who tout the purported promise of embryonic stem-cell research (ESCR) in eventually producing cures for disease. But Associated Press reports that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, although known for enforcing discipline on the GOP ranks, has also faced opposition from within his own party over his stand against the measure.
Dr. David Stevens of the CMDA believes it will be more than just a political loss if the pro-ESCR measure passes. "Putting federal money into embryonic stem-cell research is a mistake," he says. "It's a mistake morally because they're killing human beings; but it's also a bad public policy mistake because this form of therapy that they're proposing is highly speculative, and so far we've seen no results from it in seven years."
Stevens says ESCR already has plenty of money being directed to it, especially after the passage of Proposition 71 in California. That $3 billion bond measure not only gave researchers the right to conduct ESCR within the state, but also established the "California Institute for Regenerative Medicine" to regulate and provide funding for such research through grants and loans, and provided a General Fund loan of up to $3 million for the Institute's start-up and administrative costs.
Proposition 71 also authorized California's issuance of general obligation bonds to finance Institute activities up to a yearly limit of $350 million. And yet, critics of ESCR continually point out, even with all this funding ESCR has yet to cure a single patient or demonstrate a single effective treatment for disease.
Stevens feels the United States does not need any more taxpayer money pumped into this less-than-successful research. On the other hand, he notes, "Where we are seeing results for patients is with adult stem-cell therapy." The CMDA supports increased funding for adult stem-cell research, an area in which researchers are quietly providing hope and help for individuals suffering with Parkinson's disease, heart disease, stroke, sickle cell anemia, autoimmune diseases, and even spinal cord injuries. Christian Medical Association senior policy analyst Jonathan Imbody notes, "Scientific evidence, fiscal prudence and compassion for the afflicted all point to investing our tax dollars in adult stem-cell research, where proven results are yielding real treatments for real patients."
Needless Destruction of Life, and the Heedless Push to Clone & Kill
But all those issues aside, the head of the CMDA feels, along with pro-lifers nationwide, that another ethical problem with ESCR has to be considered paramount. He says before Congress votes on whether to ease restrictions on this kind of study, the lawmakers need to look at what the researchers would be destroying -- an unborn human being.
Some supporters of ESCR argue that sacrificing them for medical research is a prudent use of all the unused embryos left over from attempts at in vitro fertilization, which would otherwise be discarded anyway. Stevens refers those making that argument to the many parents whose children were once unused embryos, adopted from fertility clinics. "An embryo adoption is the most wonderful form of adoption," he says, "because the parents actually experience the pregnancy as well as the delivery and raising the child. So we have an ethical alternative for embryos available in clinics."
And there is still another ethical problem with ESCR to address, the CMDA spokesman points out. Advocates of research on human embryonic stem cells habitually ignore the fact that there are nowhere near enough unused embryos to cover the amount the research requires, Stevens says. Hence, he asserts, cloning is the inevitable "next step" after relaxing ESCR restrictions.
South Korean and British scientist have already reported using human cloning to create embryos solely for the purpose of destroying them and extracting their stem cells. As Lifenews.com editor Steven Ertelt observed in an article yesterday, this fact alone should cause some U.S. lawmakers to "pause and rethink" their support for HR 810.
