Politics
Monday July 17, 2006
Lord of the Rings Profits Used to Support Embryonic Stem Cell Research
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By Gudrun Schultz
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, July 17, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Profits
from the Lord of the Rings film trilogy are being used to fund
destructive human embryonic research at the University of California,
reported the Mainichi Daily News.
Filmmakers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, who brought the J.R.R. Tolkien
epic to the screen, together donated US $310,000 last Saturday to fund
research using the stem cells of human embryos.
“Stem cell therapy has the potential to treat a multitude of diseases
and illnesses which up until now have been labelled ‘incurable,’” the
pair said in a statement released by the University of California.
“Continuing advances in stem cell medicine will change all of our lives for the better.”
Despite such assumptions, research using human embryonic stem cells has
so far been unsuccessful. All of the breakthroughs using stem cells for
medical therapy have so far been found through the use of adult stem
cells—cells obtained directly from the individual in need of therapy
and used successfully to treat a growing list of serious illnesses.
Embryonic stem cell research has received international criticism,
including disapproval by the US government, because the research
involves the killing of human embryos in the very earliest stages of
development. The Catholic Church, in particular, has condemned any
research that involves the use or destruction of the human embryo as
intrinsically immoral.
Ironically, despite the undercurrent of traditional morality that forms
the foundation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy—Tolkien was a devout
Roman Catholic—the film has been used as a springboard to promote
policies in direct opposition to Catholic teaching.
British actor Ian McKellen, who portrayed the wizard Gandalf in the
film, has used the international recognition generated by the film to
further his promotion of homosexuality, campaigning for homosexual
“marriage” in Britain.
See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:
Lord of the Rings Star Using Fame from Film to Promote Homosexual "Marriage"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/may/06050409.html ;
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