Cardinal calls federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research wrong

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Taxpayers should not be forced to support the destruction of human embryos through federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research, said Baltimore Cardinal William H. Keeler, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

The cardinal urged federal lawmakers to oppose efforts to include such federal funding in the appropriations bill for the Labor Department and the Health and Human Services Department.

'Government has no business forcing taxpayers to support research that relies on the direct destruction of any human life,' he said in a July 7 letter to the appropriations committees in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Embryonic stem-cell research de facto destroys the human embryos.

The cardinal said that there is no need to experiment with embryonic stem cells because knowledge of stem cells has advanced through use of morally acceptable adult stem cells, animal stem cells and embryonic stem cells eligible for funding under current Bush administration policy.

The Bush policy allows federal funding only of research on stem-cell lines that were in existence as of Aug. 9, 2001.

Cardinal Keeler is correct here and Catholics need to pray that President Bush and the Congress work towards de-funding ESCR. There is so little, if any, hope of ESCR leading to great cures. There has been, however, actual use and cures utilizing adult-stem cells.