Obama order: one giant leap toward cloning
- Mar 10, 2009 - 1
Hardly a week seems to pass without the Obama administration taking strides to peel back protections for unborn human life. This week is no exception. President Obama’s latest move came yesterday with the signing of an executive order to open up taxpayer dollars to fund unethical and unnecessary research that requires the killing of human embryos—a move that puts us on a bioethics superhighway headed into uncharted territory with human cloning a likely destination.
The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission deplores the president’s decision, which reverses President Bush’s 2001 policy to prevent federal funding of destructive research on living embryos created after that date. To destroy any human life for research is reprehensible. At this time, there does not appear to be any limit on the barbarism that will result.
Where might this brave new world take us? Human cloning appears to be the next destination. As savage as this laboratory madness may sound, there are no laws to prevent scientists from cloning one life to create another life or any number of lives for that matter. Even the United Nations, in 2005, voted in favor of urging all member states “to prohibit all forms of human cloning.”
We must begin immediately to reverse the president’s brash decision. Congress must pass a law preventing the use of taxpayer dollars for the funding of embryo-destructive research. We can begin this battle to reclaim the right to life for every human being by passing a law that forbids human cloning for any reason.
The Human Cloning Prohibition Act (H.R. 1050) would do just that, making both reproductive and therapeutic cloning illegal. It should not be confused with another measure—a clone-to-kill bill—that its supporters deceptively claim bans cloning when in fact it permits cloning embryos, only to require their destruction within 14 days’ gestation.
A running line against those who oppose embryonic stem cell research is that they are anti-science. The facts tell a much different story. With the support of President Bush, considered by some detractors as the anti-science chief, Congress has pumped millions of dollars into stem cell research—the ethical kind that does not require taking a human life and that has actually delivered on the promise of treatments.
Research using non-embryonic stem cells, taken from sources such as bone marrow, fat, placenta, and umbilical cord blood, has treated patients with dozens of ailments, including Parkinson’s disease, cancer, heart disease, and spinal cord injuries—each of which President Obama mentioned in his remarks as ailments he hopes embryo-destructive research will one day treat. For those who are keeping track, the score is 73 treatments of diseases with ethical stem cell research to zero treatments with destructive stem cell research funded through state and private channels. What’s more, recent breakthroughs in science give indication that adult cells can be converted into cells with the properties and potential of embryonic cells without their ethical shortcomings.
President Obama’s reckless decision to force taxpayers to fund the destruction of the tiniest humans among us is, to adapt a line from astronaut Neil Armstrong, one small step for man, one giant leap backward for mankind. He has well-positioned us to take another step backward. If he really means business on developing “strict guidelines” on his new policy—that “we will ensure that our government never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction”—then he and Congress should support a true ban on human cloning of all kinds.
If you agree, please tell President Obama to support and your representative to cosponsor the Human Cloning Prohibition Act (H.R. 1050).
Further Learning
Learn more about: Life, Cloning, Stem-Cell Research, Science, Bioethics
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comments
1 On Mar 20th, 2009, at 3:57pm, Carol Whitaker wrote:
My heart is grieved about the change in this Stem-Cell Research issue! It is totally unnecessary! It is clear, that progress is being made in disease treatment “without” the embryo destruction. I can only conclude that greed, and the intrigue of cloning is the basis, with no concern for the ultimate affect on society.
I am also angry at the thought of tax dollars being used for this research. To say this is being done to treat human disease is nothing more than a cover for other motives!
I beg this not go any further, and the law be passed to “prohibit” this practice! If not stopped I am frightened at the possible outcome. I am not a doomsdayer, but a realist—the bible warns that God will not be mocked. Only our Creator should be in control of human life. America and the world should beware at the consequences if we do not eliminate this horrible practice.
Again, please pass the law to stop this practice! Thank you.