
Letter to Congress on Public Funding of
Destructive Embryonic Stem Cell Research
July
10, 2001
Dear Member of Congress:
I am writing on behalf of the
Catholic bishops of the United States to express our grave concern as you face
one of the most important decisions of this Congress: whether to provide
public funding for research that relies on the destruction of human life in
its earliest stages.
We know that speculations about the possible
benefits of such research, and mistaken views about the status of the human
embryo, have led many to urge you to abandon your convictions. We believe it
is more important than ever to stand for the principle that government must
not treat any living human being as research material, as a mere means for
benefit to others.
Government support for destructive human embryo
research has been proposed in our nation since 1979. At first these proposals
concerned the use of so-called "spare" or "excess" embryos from fertility
clinics -- relying on the fallacy that if parents say they no longer want
their unborn child, the government may assist in that child's destruction for
its own purposes. Since 1994 the National Institutes of Health has also
favored supporting research in which human embryos are created solely for
research and then destroyed. This year the biotechnology industry began to
campaign for the freedom to use human cloning to create embryos for medical
research, saying that this ability to create genetically matched embryos for
each patient will be essential to realizing the benefits of embryonic stem
cell research.
Throughout this history, however, no Administration of
either party has funded a research project that relies on destroying live
human embryos. The Clinton Administration's plans to do so were delayed by
public opposition, then halted for good reason by the Bush Administration. If
the federal government decides even to partially implement the National
Institutes of Health's guidelines for embryonic stem cell research, this will
open the door to broader assaults on innocent human life in the name of
research. Congress and this Administration would then endorse the principle
that alleged research benefits outweigh the inviolable dignity of innocent
human life. Attempts to prevent further abuses will likely be futile, as
researchers demand more and more freedom to set aside restrictions that
prevent them from realizing their dreams of conquering disease. We applaud the
Administration's recent announcement that it supports a complete ban on human
cloning – but we believe that a wrong decision on the matter before you will
undermine that stand.
In short, we believe you can make a difficult but
correct decision now – or set the stage for all-but-impossible decisions in
the future for yourself and your successors, as a research enterprise
impatient with moral limits increasingly leads us into a culture of
death.
We also hold that funding research relying on the destruction of
human embryos would violate federal statutory law. The legal situation should
also be a factor in your decision. We have grieved for many years over the
assault on unborn human life set loose upon our nation by the Supreme Court's
Roe v. Wade decision. Even that decision, however, did not affect all areas of
law where lawmakers seek to protect developing human life. Because they are
not covered by the Court's theory of reproductive privacy, human embryos
outside the womb may be fully protected by law – and at least nine states have
acted to protect these embryos from lethal experiments. In some states,
destructive experimentation on human embryos is a felony.
We do not
see how such laws would survive, and others like them be enacted, if the
federal government were to give its blessing to such destruction for research
purposes. An entire area of law where states have been able to express respect
for human life would be wiped away.
We know that many have made
expansive claims for the benefits of human embryo research. However, all such
claims are conjectural. Embryonic stem cell research has not helped a single
human patient or demonstrated any therapeutic benefit. At the same time, adult
stem cells have helped hundreds of thousands of patients and new clinical uses
expand almost weekly. Even President Clinton's National Bioethics Advisory
Commission, recognizing the human embryo as "a developing form of human life,"
concluded that the use of embryos from fertility clinics for such research
cannot be justified if morally noncontroversial alternatives exist. There is
now ample evidence that they do exist, are far more promising than once
thought, and are worthy of increased public attention and government support.
In the final analysis, however, this decision is not primarily about
medical benefits.
In his great novel The Brothers Karamazov,
Dostoevsky raised the question whether it would be right to build a world
without human suffering if "it was essential and inevitable to torture to
death one tiny creature" such as an innocent child to achieve that end. Each
of us must answer that ultimate question in the depths of his or her own
conscience. The claim that destructive embryo research will achieve such a
utopian end is, we believe, a hollow promise. In the meantime, however, the
killing will be quite real.
We hope and pray that you will consider
these reflections and agree that our government should not support research
that relies on the destruction of innocent human beings. Please know that,
through all our resources for teaching and public communication, we will
provide every support for that decision.
Sincerely,
Most Rev.
Joseph A. Fiorenza
Bishop of Galveston-Houston
President
National
Conference of Catholic
Bishops
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Catholic Bishops
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June 03, 2003 Copyright © by United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops