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Press Release
Opinion --
Nation Must Ban Embryonic Cell Research
Don Nelson
President, Nevada LIFE
Reno Gazette
Journal August 8, 2001
President Bush and Congress must expand the ban on federal
funding of embryonic stem cell research to include private
research.
Why the ban? Lucinda Borden adopted her nine month old
twins while they were frozen embryos at a fertility clinic.
Her boys are evidence that human embryos are not potential
humans, but humans with vast potential. We cannot tell
her these children were less human then because of their
size, means of creation, location, or that they should
have been candidates for research.
A ban on embryonic cell research is necessary because
each of these tiny humans, from the moment of his or her
creation-whether in the womb or in a petri dish- is a
unique unrepeatable human being possessing infinite dignity
and worth. As Mrs. Borden says, "we can’t treat
these embryos as if they are property." They are
someones, not somethings-persons by nature, not societal
consent.
This research also violates the principle safeguarding
humanity and civilization: that all men and women are
created equal and are endowed with unalienable rights,
among them being the right to life. It reduces these tiny
humans to mere commodities to be bought and sold or manipulated
for the benefit of others. Since humans are never to serve
as means to another’s ends without consent, it is
wrong to use them for research, no matter how good those
ends may appear. And since governments are instituted
to protect these rights, its duty is to protect their
rights and existences, not to fund and allow their destruction.
While this may not be the reason that 86 percent of Americans
say "no" when asked "should scientists
be allowed to create a supply of human embryos to be destroyed
in medical research," it is obvious that the nation
has ethical concerns. After all, if these embryos are
nothing but products of conception, contents of the petri
dish, a mass of cells or a blob of tissue, then this would
raise no concerns any more than abortion would if it were
just a cleansing of the uterus.
The good news is that non-embryonic cell research is
more promising and is achieving superior results, without
the ethical problems of creating humans to experiment
on and kill. James Burns, president of bio-tech company
Orsis Therapeutic says "the practical use of adult
stem cells is not 10 to 15 years away but well along in
the commercialization process. We believe that adult stem
cells will become a routine treatment for cancer, immune
disorders, orthopedic injuries, transplant medicine, congestive
heart failure and degenerative diseases."
Five years ago, 16 year old Nathan Salley received an
umbilical cord stem cell transplant to successfully treat
his acute leukemia. Other successes include substantial
vision repair in Taiwan for patients with severe eye damage
using stem cells from their own eyes. British scientists
have turned stem cells in bone marrow into liver cells.
Harvard Medical School has reversed type one diabetes
in mice using their own cells.
Fantastic breakthroughs are rapidly occurring with these
cells. They exist in abundance throughout the human body,
in umbilical cords and placenta tissue. With these cells
found in human fat, there’s a guaranteed supply!
The ethical concerns of embryonic stem cell research
and the superior results of adult cell research are reason
enough to ban embryonic stem cell research and pursue
cell research that does not destroy human life.
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