USCCB Official Comments on Approval of Bill to Fund Stem Cell Research Requiring the Destruction of Human Embryos
WASHINGTON, June 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Richard Doerflinger, Deputy Director of Pro-Life Activities, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), issued a statement today regarding this week’s votes on stem cell research and human cloning in the U.S. House of Representatives. Below is the text of the statement:
“Today the House of Representatives again approved a bill to fund stem cell research requiring the destruction of human embryos (S. 5), 247 to 176. The margin of support was a bit lower than in January, when a similar bill passed 253 to 174, despite the recent addition of language supporting morally noncontroversial stem cell research that was designed to invite more support. The President will veto this bill, and his veto will be sustained.
“Yesterday a related bill, designed to allow cloning of human embryos for destructive research (H.R. 2560), was defeated outright in the House. Marketed as a ‘prohibition’ on human cloning, the bill would actually allow unlimited use of the human cloning procedure, while punishing any attempt to let the resulting embryos survive in a womb. H.R. 2560 would have made the federal government into the publicly funded security guards for human embryo farms, helping to ensure that none of their victims gets out of the laboratory alive.
“These setbacks for the destructive embryo research campaign should lead Congress to refocus its energies toward the common ground in this debate: enhanced support for the genuine treatments emerging from non-embryonic stem cells; full funding for the new federal program for public banking of umbilical cord blood stem cells; and support for promising new ways to produce stem cells with the versatility of embryonic stem cells but without the moral problems. Pursuing that agenda would serve ethics, science, and life-saving medical progress.”
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
CONTACT: William Ryan, office, +1-202-541-3200; home, +1-202-686-1824;Cell: +1-202-747-4718, for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops