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For immediate release:
May 6, 2009
Statement of Women for Faith & Family
on the
National Institutes of Health Draft Guidelines for Human Stem Cell Research
(Implementing Executive Order 13505, March 9, 2009)
Women for Faith & Family is deeply concerned about the draft guidelines for embryonic stem-cell research issued by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Earlier legislation limited federally funded embryonic research only to frozen embryos, conceived through in-vitro fertilization (IVF), that the parents did not want. Though this destroyed new human life, the delay at least permitted the parents time to consider their actions.
The proposed NIH guidelines go much further than previous legislation, and would open the door to even greater loss of life. The new guidelines would not restrict research to frozen “discarded” embryos, but would offer IVF parents the option to donate immediately their newly created embryos for destructive research, among other options for their “extra” (un-implanted) embryos.
The NIH does not, in these proposed guidelines, allow the most extreme and radical ideas for human stem-cell research: namely, the creation of human embryos through somatic-cell nuclear transfer (i.e., cloning), and creating human-animal “hybrids”. But this does not diminish the enormity of destroying countless human lives by government-supported researchers.
Women for Faith & Family urges review of the draft guidelines, and the addition of an explicit preferential option for stem-cell research using mature (adult) stem cells, which has been far more productive of scientifically sound and medically useful results, and is ethically responsible since it does not destroy human lives.
Contact: WFF is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Donations are tax deductible.
Helen Hull Hitchcock, Director
Women for Faith & Family
PO Box 300411, St. Louis, Missouri, 63130
Phone: 314 863-8385; Fax: 314 863-5858
E-mail: [email protected]
**Women for Faith & Family operates solely on your generous donations!
