LIFE DIGEST: Brits break barrier, create human-animal embryos
- Apr 8, 2008 - comment
A research team has created human-animal embryos in Great Britain for the first time.
Scientists at Newcastle University announced April 1 they had placed human cells into empty cow eggs, The Times of London reported. The team successfully performed the experiment with the goal of eventually extracting stem cells and conducting research for treatments of various diseases.
Parliament soon will be debating legislation that would legalize such hybrid embryos. There already is a ban on permitting the embryos to grow beyond 14 days or to implant them in the womb of a human being or animal, according to The Times.
In January, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) granted one-year licenses for the Newcastle scientists and another team to conduct such research.
Pro-life advocates criticized the newest development.
The research is “ethically monstrous,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins wrote in an online commentary on the organization’s website. “Out of respect for the legislative process and the citizens of Great Britain, the government at the very least should have allowed for a thorough and transparent public debate before authorizing scientists to proceed. We can only hope this discovery fuels the hostility to such research in the U.K. and in the U.S., where leaders have also not succeeded in banning it.”
The hybrid embryos are 99.9 percent human, according to The Times. The embryos created by the Newcastle team lived for three days, the British Broadcasting Co. reported, according to The Times. The researchers hope to grow them until they reach six days before removing stem cells for research, an act that destroys the embryos.
Houston teens give birth in restrooms; one may face charges
Two 14-year-old girls from the Houston area recently gave birth to babies in public restrooms, and one may face criminal charges for killing her son.
The births to the unidentified girls came three days apart.
An eighth-grade student at Cedar Bayou Junior High in Baytown, Texas, gave birth April 2 to a son in a school toilet. The baby was alive when he was born, an autopsy showed, and he probably was full term and cried once before his mother tried to flush him down the toilet, killing him, a police spokesman said, according to the Associated Press. Charges, if there are any, have yet to be filed against the mother.
On March 30, a student gave birth in the restroom on a Continental Airlines flight from New York to Houston, according to AP. That child was dead at birth and was not viable, according to a preliminary autopsy, AP reported. No charges will be filed against the mother, according to AP.
The girl was part of a middle-school group returning from a field trip to New York, according to the report. She disposed of the baby’s body in a restroom trash can, where it was discovered by a cleaning crew shortly after the airplane landed at Bush Intercontinental Airport, AP reported.
Police found no one – including parents, teachers and classmates — who knew the Baytown girl was pregnant, according to the Houston Chronicle. She had been wearing baggy clothing, the newspaper reported.
Care Net President Melinda Delahoyde expressed sadness the girls were unable to receive help from one of her organization’s pregnancy centers in the Houston area.
“How tragic that these two young girls felt that secretly disposing of life was their only option,” Delahoyde said in a written release. “Young women in these situations often feel so scared and alone that they are in denial about their pregnancy. What a sad state of our society – that some girls may not have a family member or adult helper who will help and love them unconditionally.”
Care Net is a network of more than 1,100 pregnancy centers.
Land backs pro-life amendment to Indian health care bill
Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), has called for passage of a measure to codify a ban on federal funding for abortion as part of an Indian health care bill.
In an April 1 letter, Land expressed his support for a proposal sponsored by Rep. Joseph Pitts, R.-Pa., whose amendment to the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, H.R. 1328, would establish a long-term ban that has been missing from the legislation. The Senate approved such an amendment with a 52-42 vote in February.
Though there has been a longstanding rule not to use Indian Health Service funds for abortion, Land told Pitts the ERLC fears “that without your amendment to permanently adopt this policy, a future administration could easily open up taxpayer dollars to subsidize abortions through IHS.”
The amendment’s language allows exceptions in the ban for abortions to save the life of the mother or in cases of pregnancy by rape or incest.
The Senate-approved amendment is similar to the Hyde Amendment, first enacted in 1976. The Hyde Amendment, named after the late Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, prohibits federal funds for most abortions as part of the spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services. Unlike the Senate-passed amendment for IHS, the Hyde language has to be approved each year as part of the appropriations bill.
RU 486 manufacturer to file report with FDA
The abortifacient RU 486 is one of 25 drugs for which the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is requiring safety plans to be filed, according to MedPage Today.
A 2007 law gave the FDA authority to require manufacturers of drugs to file safety plans, MedPage reported March 28. The companies must file their plans by Sept. 21. Danco Laboratories manufactures RU 486 in the United States.
Eight women’s deaths in this country have been associated with RU 486, as well as nine life-endangering situations, about 120 blood transfusions and more than 200 hospitalizations, Sen. Jim DeMint, R.-S.C., said in 2006. DeMint is a leading Senate opponent of FDA approval of the abortion drug.
RU 486, also known as mifepristone, is used as the first part in a two-step process in the first seven weeks of pregnancy. Mifepristone causes the lining of the uterus to release the embryonic child, resulting in his death. A second drug, misoprostol, is taken two days after mifepristone and causes the uterus to contract, expelling the baby.
The FDA approved the sale of RU 486 in the U.S. in 2000, four months before President Clinton finished his second term.
Arizona bill to bar nurses from performing abortions progresses
A bill to prevent nurses from performing abortions is moving through the Arizona legislature.
A Senate committee voted 4-2 for the legislation April 3, according to the Arizona Daily Star. The House of Representatives already has approved it.
The legislative action came only weeks after it was revealed Mary Andrews, a nurse practitioner at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Tucson, Ariz., has been performing abortions and has asked the state nursing board to approve her work. More than half of the abortions performed at Planned Parenthood’s Tucson clinic are done by a nurse practitioner, the Daily Star reported.
There are nine states that do not require medical doctors to do surgical abortions, Family News in Focus (FNIF) reported. Arizona law is unclear on whether non-physicians can perform abortions, according to FNIF.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission works to protect the sanctity of human life. If you would like to learn more about this issue, additional resources are available here. If your church is interested in purchasing materials on the sanctity of human life, please visit our online bookstore and erlc.com.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Faith, Bible, Life, Abortion, Birth Control, Cloning, Science, Bioethics