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State-Funded Embryo Research "Makes Taxpayers Complicit in Killing", say Bishops

By Tim Waggoner

ORLANDO, FL, June 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a 191-1 vote, the U.S. bishops adopted a proposed statement on embryonic stem cell research during Friday's session of the U.S. Conference of Bishops spring meeting in Orlando, which concludes on Saturday.  On numerous occasions the statement refers to embryonic stem cell research as "killing", and condemns three common arguments in support of the practice.

The statement was drawn up by the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, which is chaired by the absent Cardinal Justin Rigali. Archbishop Joseph Nauman of Kansas City took his place in introducing the statement.

The archbishop summarized the document saying, "The statement firmly rejects attacks on the lives of embryonic human beings for any reason, including medical research. It also responds to several arguments used to justify such killing, and explains how an initial decision to destroy so-called 'spare' embryos for this research leads to far broader abuses, including human cloning and new risks to women."

The statement explicitly rejects the practice of embryonic stem cell research because it involves the destruction of human life, saying, "Harvesting these 'embryonic stem cells' involves the deliberate killing of innocent human beings, a gravely immoral act…true service to humanity begins with respect for each and every human life."

The document also criticizes the push by some to have embryonic stem cell research publicly funded, which would make American citizens "complicit" in the murder of human lives for the sake of science:  "Some researchers, ethicists, and policy makers claim that we may directly kill innocent embryonic human beings as if they were mere objects of research - and even that we should make taxpayers complicit in such killing through use of public funds."

The statement continues by refuting three arguments that embryonic stem cell advocates frequently rely upon.  

The first assumes that a good end justifies an evil means, to which the statement responds: "The false assumption that a good end can justify direct killing has been the source of much evil in our world. This utilitarian ethic has especially disastrous consequences when used to justify lethal experiments on fellow human beings in the name of progress."

The bishops then go on to debunk the argument that a human embryo is not a human being, arguing, "From conception onward, [an embryo] is as much a living member of the human species as any of us. As a of biological fact, this new living organism has the full complement of human genes and is actively expressing those genes to live and develop in a way that is unique to human beings, setting the essential foundation for further development".

The document also alludes to the fact that opposition to embryo research is not only a Church teaching, but a pillar of truth that America was founded upon: "Our nation's Declaration of Independence took for granted that human beings are unequal in size, strength, and intelligence. Yet it declared that members of the human race who are unequal in all these respects are created equal in their fundamental rights, beginning with the right to life."

The last argument the statement rebuts suggests that the embryos being killed are "unwanted" or "spare" embryos "who will die anyway."  To this position the statement responds, "This argument is simply invalid. Ultimately each of us will die, but that gives no one a right to kill us."

The statement defends the necessity of standing firm against embryonic stem cell research in order to prevent future practices that treat "human beings as mere objects of research."

"The only moral stance that affirms the human dignity of all of us is to reject the first step down this path. We therefore urge Catholics and all people of good will to join us in reaffirming, precisely in this context of embryonic stem cell research, that 'the killing of innocent human creatures, even if carried out to help others, constitutes an absolutely unacceptable act' (Pope John Paul II, The Gospel of Life [Evangelium Vitae], no. 63)," declared the document.

It concludes by affirming the need to integrate ethics and science, heeding the fact that "we must pursue progress in ethically responsible ways that respect the dignity of each human being."

The letter, which also expressed the bishops' support for adult stem cell research, will be followed by a second, "somewhat longer, more pastoral document, addressed especially to Catholic engaged and married couples (including those struggling with infertility), to explain the Church's teaching on reproductive technologies such as 'in vitro' fertilization," announced Archbishop Naumann.

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