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Opinion- Ban Prevents
Tampering With Human Life
Don Nelson, President
Nevada LIFE
Reno Gazette Journal
September
28, 2004
SPECIAL TO
THE RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
9/27/2004 10:21 pm
The ban on federal funding
of embryonic stem cell research must continue as a minimal
safeguard for ethical science in the face of the powerful
biotech industry.
Embryonic stem cell research
(ESCR) is one type of stem cell research that procures
stem cells by destroying human embryos. The current policy
excludes federal taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell
lines created after August 2001. It allows funding for and
has funded research on embryonic stem cell lines existing
before August 2001. It does not exclude private funding,
though Nevada LIFE and others oppose it.
The policy is important
because ESCR kills embryonic human beings to obtain these
kinds of stem cells for research. If allowed, this
research would loudly proclaim that humanness is not
enough to protect human life. There can be and will be
classes of human beings that can be exploited — even
intentionally created and harvested — for the benefit of
others.
Right-to-life opponents —
though not the only opponents — object because humans
have intrinsic value at any stage by virtue of being
human. Human dignity and value are woven into the fabric
of our being from the moment of our creation. These are
not achieved as if size, location —whether in a womb or
a lab dish —level of development or degree of dependency
makes us more human. Nor are dignity and value diminished
by the means of conception. Ethical research requires that
humans not be experimented upon without consent.
Many ESCR supporters evade
the moral issues by making the cheap ad-hominem charge
that opponents are anti-research. Opponents are not
anti-research. They are anti-unethical research and
strongly support almost all stem cell research. They
object to what ESCR does to embryonic human beings and how
it will inevitably target others. Once we cave in to the
idea that medical results justify exploitive human
research, then we all become potential targets in the name
of research and progress.
ESCR researchers say they
want a 10- to 14-day window in which it will be legal to
kill human embryos for research. Events in New Jersey
illustrate that this will not be enough for them. Gov.
McGreevey signed a law this year making it legal to create
a cloned human embryo, implant it in the womb and allow
the newly cloned human to grow until birth. Throughout
this pregnancy period researchers can grow and kill the
fetus and use “cadaveric” tissue for research and
transplantation purposes without penalty — so long as
the fetus is not born alive. Prop. 71 in California will
do the same. Welcome to biotech ethics.
ESCR proponents, with the
polish of faith healers, promise amazing cures. John Kerry
says that if we’ll just elect him, cures are at our
fingertips. The truth is that ESCR has been a bust. Other
stem cell research using a person’s own stem cells or
stem cells from umbilical cord blood or placental tissues
are achieving positive results. Treatments using a
person’s own stem cells have treated over 80 different
diseases. Embryonic stem cells have treated no one.
Opponents of the current
policy say it sacrifices science for ideology. This is an
instance of the accuser being guilty of the charge.
Fixation with ESCR has caused real harm to American
sufferers by leaving them to go to other countries for
help where other stem cell research is achieving promising
results.
The current policy has been
an important first step. But more needs to be done to
prevent further exploration and tampering with human life.
Don Nelson is the
president of Nevada LIFE (Life Issues Forum and
Education).
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