News

WASHINGTON, July 30, 2001 (LSN.ca) – House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has come out with a statement with wavering support for life and rejection of the funding of destructive research on human embryos. Yesterday Hastert said, “I personally am pro-life, [and] I think . . . taking and killing those embryos certainly doesn't go along with that sanctity of life issue that I think is important . I don't think at this point there ought to be federal funding, but I want to look at all the debate before I make solid that decision.”

In related news, a letter sign by 202 members of Congress, including 40 Republicans, was sent to President Bush in favour of federal funding for destructive research on human embryos. Ironically, the lawmakers wrote, “You have the lives of millions of our, and your, constituents in your hands” – touting the potential cures for diseases coming from the research but ignoring the lives of the human embryos sacrificed.

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput has written a stinging article blasting the media for its “bombast and misleading information to argue its support for federally funded embryonic stem cell research in a way reminiscent of a not-very-bright bully.” After pointing out the erroneous media slant, he calls on Christians to lobby their political representatives on the issue. “This is a matter of enormous importance. Let President Bush and your congressional representatives know your convictions—and equally important, let's pray for them daily, that the Lord will lead them to see and do what is right,” he wrote in the archdiocesan newspaper last week.

See related coverage: 
https://www.archden.org/archbishop/docs/stem_cell.htm