CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug 14, 2001 (LSN.ca) – In a letter published in the New York Times Sunday, President George Bush explained his decision on stem cell research claiming, “There are, however, two ways for the federal government to aggressively promote stem cell research without inviting ethical abuses.” The first with adult cells not from embryos and the second, contends Bush, is from existing stem cell lines created albeit by the previous destruction of human embryos.
“While it is unethical to end life in medical research, it is ethical to benefit from research where life and death decisions have already been made” wrote Bush. The president claimed a precedent to this line of thinking. “The only licensed live chickenpox vaccine used in the United States was developed, in part, from cells derived from research involving human embryos. Researchers first grew the virus in embryonic lung cells, which were later cloned and grown in two previously existing cell lines. Many ethical and religious leaders agree that even if the history of this vaccine raises ethical questions, its current use does not.”
Drawing on long-established precedent within Catholic theology, Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, rejected Bush's reasoning saying on ABC's “This Week” that the existing stem cell lines are “ill-gotten goods.” Bishop Fiorenza said, “For the government to allow funding for this experiment makes the government complicit in what we consider to be wrongdoing.” A similar question was asked and answered during the Clinton administration. In response to President Clinton's National Bioethics Advisory Commission's position that morally questionable research should not be considered unless it is necessary to cure life-threatening disease, Cardinal William H. Keeler stated in a letter to Congress dated May 27, 1999, “one must not commit injustices even if that is deemed necessary to reach some important goal.”
In related news, Bush on Monday threatened to veto any legislation that violates the spirit of a proposal he announced last week to give federal funding for limited embryonic stem cell research. And a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted August 10-12 found that 60% of Americans approve of Bush's decision on stem cell research, while 34% disapprove and 6% have no opinion. Of the roughly one-third of Americans who say they disapprove of Bush's decision, most think that Bush's limitations on federal funding are “not strict enough.”