January 11, 2007 — Chicago, Illinois — In response to passage of H.R 3, The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, Director of The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity (CBHD) C. Ben Mitchell, Ph.D., states “Partisan politics has trumped ethical science. Not only is it unethical to kill embryos for their stem cells, it is unnecessary and undesirable.”The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, which is virtually identical to a bill vetoed by President Bush last year, allows the use of Federal taxpayer dollars to support and thereby encourage the destruction of nascent human life for highly speculative research purposes.
In contrast, non-embryonic stem cells are being used to treat six-dozen diseases and conditions in human patients. Just this week the world received news that cells from amniotic fluid possess all of the desirable traits of embryonic stem cells but not the undesirable traits such as the proclivity for tumor formation that embryonic stem cells exhibit.
According to Mitchell, “This study should have put an immediate stop to the pro-embryo-destructive stem cell bill.”
It is now evident that many of the byproducts of live birth—amniotic fluid, placenta, and umbilical cord blood—contain stem cells that may rival embryonic stem cells in their flexibility and usefulness.
True human flourishing is not a product of the destruction of the youngest members of our human family. “Only through political sleight of hand may someone argue that human embryos are not human lives,” says Mitchell, “for they are both human and alive.”
While the need for relief of human suffering is great, we must not seek cures for some at the expense of the lives of others.
(Source: The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity Press Release, January 11, 2007.)
