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Stem Cell Confusion: Catholic Pro-Life Leaders Oppose Bill Which Cardinal Supports

By John-Henry Westen

WASHINGTON, DC, July 14, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Two of the best-known Catholic pro-life leaders in the United States have come out against a stem cell bill proposed by Senators Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter which is up for debate and vote in the US Senate next week.  At the same time the Cardinal Archbishop of Baltimore has written Senators calling on them to support the bill.

Judie Brown of American Life League, the nation's largest grassroots pro-life organization, and Joe Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League have spoken out against "The Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act" (S. 2754).  Meanwhile Cardinal William H. Keeler, the Chairman of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has supported the bill. 

In a letter to the Senate sent Wednesday, Cardinal Keeler wrote encouraging Senators to vote in support of S. 2754 stating: "the effort to explore all feasible avenues of research that do not attack human life is worth pursuing." His letter also opposed a bill seeking to fund straight embryonic stem cell research, and supported another bill opposing 'fetus farming'.

However, after extensive study, Judie Brown of American Life League has come out against the Santorum bill. In a statement on the bill issued today Brown stated "The Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act (S. 2754) is supposed to spare human embryos from abuse, but we oppose this bill because it allows for a technique that would actually create and then kill human embryos."

The bill's defenders, including Cardinal Keeler in his letter, have suggested that the Dickey Amendment which prohibits US funding for research harming human embryos would halt such abuse.  Brown countered: "While some lawmakers believe that human embryos will be safeguarded from government research by the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, the amendment has been violated in the past and it may be violated again."

Brown notes that human embryologist C. Ward Kischer, Ph.D., emeritus professor from the University of Arizona, analyzed and objected to the type of research which spawned the Santorum bill, namely Altered Nuclear Transfer (ANT). "These examples of ANT do not resolve the moral issue and do not resolve the scientific issue of the continuum of human life," said Kischer.  He added that this ANT protocol, "Involves the destruction of human life."

"Since ANT/OAR could be used to promote the creation and killing of disabled human embryos and could be complicit in harming women through egg harvesting, we urge senators to defend the sanctity and dignity of the human being by voting against the Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act (S. 2754)," concluded Brown.

In comments to LifeSiteNews.com Joe Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League noted that he opposed S. 2754.  Scheidler said: "I don't want my tax money supporting something until it is absolutely clear that they are not harming life." Scheidler also wondered why there would be attempts at such research until absolute certainty over its potential harm was determined, especially when adult stem cells are showing so much promise while embryonic stem cell research is showing almost none.

Scheidler also noted that while Cardinal Keeler may have supported the research the Vatican has never approved of the research.

Calls to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops were not returned by press time.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jul/06071208.html

See the American Life League Statement Against the Santorum-Specter Bill http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jul/060714a.html

See Cardinal Keeler's full letter to the Senate here: http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/bioethic/stemcell/keelerhr810.pdf

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