OTTAWA, October 17, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On Wednesday, October 19, 2005 the CIHR (Canadian Institutes for Health Research) will celebrate its fifth anniversary and they are inviting Parliamentarians to join them in “an unique event…that celebrates the way Canada is innovating in health research.” Campaign Life Coalition will be present on Parliament Hill during the event on October 19th from 2:00p.m. until 5:00p.m. to publicly demonstrate its objection to the work of the CIHR in the field of embryo research and to urge the government to draft Parliamentary guidelines for the organization in order to protect human embryos.
“Unfortunately, Canada is rushing to be innovative in using human beings for their research,” said Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition (CLC). “Although no disease has yet been alleviated or cured by the use of embryonic stem cells, Canadian scientists continue on this path, knowing full-well that adult stem cell research has shown tremendous success and does not kill a human being in the process. Parliament has never passed guidelines to monitor the workings of the CIHR and these are long overdue”, he continued.
“Immediately after the passage of Bill C-6, An Act Respecting Assisted Human Reproduction, on October 28, 2003, researchers killed their first forty embryos,” said Mary Ellen Douglas, National Organizer of CLC. “In October 2005, Health Canada asked the Canadian public their opinion through the media on the selection of “problem free” embryos for implantation through in vitro fertilization. The others are destroyed or used for experimentation. The CIHR says it is proud of its leadership to health researchers; but research without respect for human life at its most vulnerable is shameful”, Douglas said.
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