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Embryo Research Oversight Agencies Ruled by Utilitarian Eugenic “Ethics”

SACRAMENTO, September 13, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The British Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has recently given the green light for the creation of designer babies to be used as tissue farms, the creation of cloned human beings for various research projects and the eugenic selection and destruction of “unfit” human embryos. The HFEA uses utilitarian principles of bioethics that are now standard in the international research community which admit of no inherent dignity to the embryonic human being.

The eugenic bioethics principles are the foundation of all such regulatory bodies as can be seen in last week’s decision by the California stem cell research agency to begin allotting money to research groups. The first installments of the US $3 billion in grants allowed by the California legislature are being doled out to UCLA, UC Irvine, Stanford and other leading universities to begin training embryo researchers.

Just under $39 million is being awarded in this first stage of the California plan to make the state a leader in destructive embryo research and human cloning. The criterion most commonly employed by the agencies making the funding decisions in California and Britain is to ask, ‘will the research work?’ Any suggestion that human embryos are persons to be protected is ignored, the legislation having already established that they are not.

Jesse Reynolds is program director of the Center for Genetics and Society and was quoted by the Los Angeles Times on the ethics of funding embryo research at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Reynolds maintained that funding ought to be withheld until it could be proved that the research would work. “It’s irresponsible for anyone to promise something you're not sure you can deliver,” Reynolds said.

In the meantime, funding for ethical and often successful disease research using adult stem cells, those derived from the patient’s own body, are left to go looking for funding. In Australia, one of the most important stem cell breakthroughs in the history of the field came from a group running on a shoestring, partially funded by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.

While pro-life lobbyists worked to halt the passage of Canada’s reproductive technologies bill – which placed no reliable restrictions on either cloning or research on existing embryos – they were assured by pro-life Members of Parliament that the damage of the bill would be mitigated by the “regulatory body” to be set up. While the Canadian bill was being debated, the British legislation was passed and the HFEA became that country’s regulatory agency. Pro-lifers had warned that such an agency would start with the assumption that embryos had no inherent value and were not persons in their own right.

The pattern of passing permissive legislation and handing the authority for killing embryos over to a government regulatory body is being repeated around the world. New Zealand passed its legislation in November 2004 which left many abhorrent practices to be controlled by “guidelines,” administered by a government agency.

Read related coverage from the Interim and LifeSiteNews.com:
 
South Africa to Follow Permissive British Model in Therapeutic Cloning Regulations
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/aug/04081702.html

Crafters of Canada's Clone-and-Kill Legislation Promote their Deceptive Bill to US Bioethics Council
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/dec/04120805.html

Australian Medical Doctor/Bioethicist Reveals Huge Profits are Motive Behind Cloning Push
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/oct/041029a.html

Cloning Bill for New Zealand called "Better than Nothing"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/nov/04111207.html

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