Saturday, January 13, 2007

Comment

I received a comment on my posting "I Really Hate This". I would like to post the comment here with my response since that person posted anonymously and I cannot respond directly... I also felt it was important enough to obtain its own post :)

From: Vox Populi anonymous-comment@blogger.com
You know what I really hate? Seeing people suffering from curable diseases because a handful of their countrymen think that a cluster of cells is more entitled to life than a living, breathing human being. I've got news for you: Every member of Congress that voted against stem cell research just voted to destroy 400,000 embryos (which you call 'babies'), not for research purposes, but just because that's what will happen to the 400,000 embryos now sitting in storage freezers, left over from in vitro fertilization procedures. With the stem cell research you hate so much, those embryos might be put to some use, saving lives. When you vote against stem cell research, your vote not only says that it's ok to kill the millions of people suffering from what may be curable diseases, you're also voting for an even more wanton, wasteful destruction of embryos than would occur via stem cell research. The bottom line is this: Those embryos are going to be destroyed, and there's nothing you can do about it. Now do you want to do the real pro-life thing and use these embryos to save human life, or do you want to just pitch them in the dumpster and call it moral? --Posted by Vox Populi to Gethsemane at 1/13/2007 12:36:55 AM

***My response***
Thank-you for your words. I do understand and once held the same ideas :) As far as the research goes, the bill was to add federal funding for these programs. It is different if it is personal funds and the embryos are already available. Also there is nothing wrong with using stem cells from adult cells. In fact to date these are the only cells that have achieved any results! It is the embryonic cells that are the road to a very scary place. God has given man wondrous abilities to find ways to preserve life, this I have no doubt. Just remember, there are always the adult cells, we can concentrate on those and leave the embryo cells alone. It is like saying that we need a child's life to be sacrificed to save a life when we can use materials from an adult without harming the adult! This was off the cuff so I hope it makes sense. Again thank-you for your comments and interest in the topic.
Posted by at

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excuse me. The bill we were discussing H.R. 3 The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, contains no appropriation of federal funds to stem cell research, simply provides access. The bill is only one page long and I suggest you read it, and will provide you with a link to the its full text at the bottom of this comment.

I thank you for your diplomatic response, however you failed to address my real question. Hundreds of thousands of embryos are currently being in storage -- left over from in vitro fertilization procedures. These embryos have been left over after a successful procedure and are slated to be thrown out, because they are no longer needed. Passage of H.R. 3 would allow for these embryos to be used in research, instead of being destroyed.

You may call these 'children' but they are not and they never will be. The simple truth of the matter is when the president vetoes this bill -- and he will, have no doubt -- these embryos will not be adopted, or emplanted into an adoptive mother, they will be thrown out like medical waste. H.R. 3 provides scientists with an opportunity to put embryos that would otherwise be destroyed to use through stem cell research.

Please read the bill. You'll see there is no federal money being appropriated, and it is only regarding embryos that would be THROWN OUT if they are NOT used for research.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:1:./temp/~c110Y59XmI::

3:46 PM
Anonymous said...

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:2:./temp/~c110hT8iKU::

3:50 PM
Dusty M Brahlek said...

OK, thank-you for presenting this information to me, also thank-you for being reasonably respectful in your comments. I agree that generally this would seem to be a good bill and a year ago I would have been in support of it. In fact, a year and a half ago I would have been posting comments much like your own. I hope you also understand I am not a theologian, and I do not have all of the answers. I was unable to read the link that you provided to me because it said it had been changed or moved.
Where my own words are inadequate for an explanation, I will post the information directly from the White House since the administration’s words are much better than what I could come up with. I will say this before I quote the statement I read, I am also against invetro. I (and the Church) see it as an attack against nature and God. So any “benefit” derived from it is by nature is not good. As far as not providing federal funding, well the administration even says that it would provide federal funding. So if you read the bill as not providing federal funding then there is a flaw somewhere.
I hope you continue to dialogue with me on this matter, or other matters. I will leave you with the quote I have been talking about with the link.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/legislative/sap/110-1/hr3sap-h.pdf

The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 3, which would use Federal taxpayer dollars to support and encourage the destruction of human life for research. The bill would compel all American taxpayers to pay for research that relies on the intentional destruction of human embryos for the derivation of stem cells, overturning the President’s policy that funds research without promoting such ongoing destruction. If H.R. 3 were presented to the President, he would veto the bill.
The President strongly supports medical research and has worked with Congress to increase resources for the National Institutes of Health. This Administration is the first to provide Federal funds for human embryonic stem cell research and has done so without encouraging the destruction of human embryos. The President’s policy permits the funding of research using embryonic cell lines created prior to August 9, 2001, the date his policy was announced, along with stem cell research using other kinds of cell lines. Scientists can therefore explore the potential applications of such cells, but the Federal government does not offer incentives or encouragement for the destruction of human life.
Over the past six years, more than $130 million in taxpayer dollars has been devoted to human embryonic stem cell research consistent with the President’s policy. Overall, nearly $3 billion has gone to innovative research on all forms of stem cells, contributing to dozens of proven medical treatments. However, this bill would provide Federal funding for the first time for a line of research that involves the intentional destruction of living human embryos for the derivation of their cells. Destroying nascent human life for research raises serious ethical problems, and millions of Americans consider the practice immoral.
The Administration believes that government has a duty to use the people’s money responsibly, both supporting important public purposes and respecting moral boundaries. H.R. 3 seeks to replace the Administration’s policy with one that uses Federal dollars to offer a prospective incentive for the destruction of human embryos. Embryonic stem cell research is at an early stage of basic science and has never yielded a therapeutic application in humans. Alternative types of human stem cells – drawn from adults, children, umbilical-cord blood, and other non-embryonic sources, without doing harm to the donors – have already achieved therapeutic results in thousands of patients with many different diseases.
Researchers are now developing promising new techniques to produce stem cells similar in nature to those derived from human embryos, but not requiring the use of embryos. A series of encouraging research reports, the latest of which was released this week, offers hope that stem cells drawn from non-embryonic sources may possess characteristics like those of embryonic stem cells. The Administration believes that the availability of alternative sources of stem cells further counters the case for compelling the American taxpayer to encourage the ongoing destruction of human embryos for research.
Moreover, private sector support and public funding by several States for this line of research, which will add up to several billion dollars in the coming few years, argues against the notion of any urgent shortfall of research funding. Whatever one’s view of the ethical issues or the state of the research, the future of this field does not require a policy of Federal subsidies that is offensive to the moral principles of millions of Americans.
H.R. 3 advances the proposition that the Nation must choose between science and ethics. The Administration believes it is possible to advance scientific research without violating ethical principles – by enacting appropriate policy safeguards and pursuing thoughtful scientific techniques. H.R. 3 is seriously flawed legislation that would undo essential ethical protections, and slow the development of new techniques that avoid bio-ethical concerns.

7:40 PM

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