Life Issues Forum
On the Backs of Women
by Gail Quinn
June 21,
2002
We hear repeatedly that
scientists must be allowed to clone and conduct harmful experiments on human
embryos. Unless such research is allowed, it is said, cures for many deadly
diseases will never be found. This message seems to come from every
corner–from Senator Ted Kennedy, actor Christopher Reeve and even Nobel
laureates.
Forget the moment that these claims are simply wrong. Not
one therapeutic benefit has come from such research; every beneficial result
has come from morally acceptable adult stem cell research. Leave aside too the
serious moral and ethical problems. Instead, focus on another aspect –the fact
that cloning would exploit women on a massive scale.
It is estimated
that 133.9 million Americans suffer from diseases some claim may be helped by
cloning. If just 10 percent were eligible for therapies derived from human
cloning, the potential patient pool would 13.4 million people. To provide
genetically matched material to treat such numbers, one would need at least
670 million eggs to clone. Where would the eggs come from? Well, if each
female donor provided 10 eggs, 67 million women donors would be needed. Each
would be subjected to high levels of hormonal stimulation, followed by
laproscopic surgery. Senator Mary Landreiu (D-LA) put it rather succinctly:
women would simply become egg factories.
Women also bear the burden
regarding family planning. Many American women take birth control pills or
other forms of hormonal contraceptives, or they undergo sterilization, a
permanent and terrible choice (men eschew vasectomy). Yet, Natural Family
Planning, a completely healthy alternative involving the cooperative effort of
husband and wife, is often dismissed out of hand. The message? Let women take
the risks.
When an unintended pregnancy occurs, the solution: Leave the
woman to bear and raise the child alone, or let her subject herself to the
abortionist's curette, and if she's lucky, she'll come away physically intact.
If she suffers emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, the message: "Get
over it."
Partial-birth abortion (where a child is partially delivered,
then killed before being completely born), poses serious risks to a woman. She
risks injury and hemorrhaging when the child's skull is pierced by a sharp
instrument while lodged in the birth canal. She faces substantial risks of
future infertility, including an inability to carry a baby to term. Knowing of
such concerns, Congress and a majority of states passed laws to ban the
practice. Yet the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that partial-birth abortion
must be permitted to serve a woman's health. As if something that poses
terrible health risks for a woman could ever be required to preserve her
health. Again, the risks and the ordeal are placed on the backs of
women.
Women deserve much better. Wouldn't it be terrific if women
banded together to say: "We are not research subjects. We are not egg
factories. We are human beings deserving of respect and dignity. We expect to
be treated that way."
________________________
Gail Quinn is
Executive Director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C.
__________________________________
Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities
United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops
3211 4th Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20017-1194 (202)
541-3070