Freeper Alert! Petition to Georgetown University: Stop Aborted Fetal Cell Line Research

We now have a petition on line to stop Georgetown University's use of aborted fetal cell lines.

If GU gets away with this, kiss the ethical vaccine deal we are on the verge of negotiating with Chiron goodbye...why bother with it if the Catholic scholars are saying the immoral research is okay? If the research at GU is acceptable then surely tainted vaccines are too, so why bother getting untainted ones?

And why bother with the new Fair Labeling and Informed Consent Legislation: See www.cogforlife.org/flica.htm proposed to Congress Jan 20th? If it is morally okay to use murdered babies in products, why should the public be made aware of this when purchasing medial products? In fact, why bother with any ethical research at all?

Office of the Archbishop: His Eminence Theodore Cardinal McCarrick
Archdiocesan Pastoral Center
5001 Eastern Avenue
Hyattsville, Maryland 20782-3447
301-853-4500

We the undersigned respectfully request that you immediately put an end to the research using aborted fetal cell lines at Georgetown University or take action to remove its Catholic identity. It is an outrage and a scandal that any Catholic facility could condone the use of aborted fetal cell lines, regardless of how long ago the abortions occurred. Are we to believe that the passage of time diminishes the sin? By allowing this research to continue at GU, you are in effect:

1) Condoning an action that is clearly contrary to Catholic Church Teaching
2) Encouraging further fetal tissue research, since the use of the cell lines is acceptable to a Catholic institution
3) Encouraging further development of life-saving medical procedures through illicit research
4) Discouraging the use of alternative, morally acceptable avenues of research
5) Ignoring the impact of such a decision on countless other Catholic institutions that adhere to higher moral standards

Your acceptance of this activity at a Catholic university also serves to thwart efforts to stop radical legislation such as the NJ cloning bill allowing destruction of embryos and abortion of implanted cloned human beings. What will you say when the NIH asks you to use these cell lines in a federally funded research program? Will you likewise concede that you were not directly involved with the murder of innocent human life and therefore such research would be acceptable? Do you not realize that the very cell lines you are working with at GU were produced specifically for research purposes and carry the same moral repugnancy of any aborted fetal cell line produced today?

The Magisterium is quite clear on the duties of Catholic Universities as Pope John Paul II stated, “It is clear that university centres that do not observe the law of the Church and the teaching of the Magisterium, especially in the matter of bioethics, cannot be considered as having the character of a Catholic university.” (Address to the International Congress, Globalization and the Catholic University , December 5, 2002 )

Futher, you have the duty to uphold the sanctity and dignity of these aborted children in accord with the Vatican teaching in Donum Vitae: "The corpses of human embryos or fetuses, whether they have been deliberately aborted or not, must be respected just as the remains of other human beings Furthermore, the moral requirements must be safeguarded, that there be no complicity in deliberate abortion and that the risk of scandal be avoided” (I.4).(Instruction on Respect for Human Life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation: Replies to Certain Questions of the Day)

Do not bring further shame upon the Catholic Church and Georgetown University. If you allow this to continue you are no less guilty of immoral behavior than those conducting the research themselves, for you have the power to stop it. Thank you for your immediate attention to this most important matter.

http://www.lifenews.com/nat314.html

Georgetown University Will Continue Using Aborted Fetal Cells

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 30, 2004

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a move that is drawing significant criticism, Georgetown University officials have confirmed that scientists at the Catholic university will continue using cells from fetal issue obtained from aborted babies, despite pressure from pro-life advocates to stop.

Debra Vinnedge, executive director of Children of God for Life, a group established to stop the use of fetal tissue from aborted babies in research and products such as cosmetics, has been attempting to get the university to stop using the cells. Vinnedge wrote to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of the Washington, D.C. archdiocese asking him to put additional pressure on university officials.

McCarrick replied to the letter last month saying the issue had been resolved, which led Vinnedge to believe the use of cells from abortions would be discontinued.

However, 14 researchers said that stopping the use of the cells from abortions would "jeopardize years of work and funding" into treatments for illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and cancer. Four other researchers decided on their own volition to stop using the cell lines and switch to using cells that did not come from abortions.

Georgetown officials decided to allow ethicists to determine whether or not their use should continue.

Georgetown bioethicist Rev. Kevin FitzGerald said that researchers should be able to continue using the cells from abortions because researchers did not know they came from abortions in the first place. He said the potential benefits of the research far outweigh the use of tissue from unborn children whose lives were destroyed by abortion and that the abortions were not performed so the scientists could obtain cells for research.

"The ideal would be not to be involved with [aborted fetal cells] at all," said FitzGerald, but that was not possible he said.

The cell lines containing the tissue from abortions have been removed from the university's central repository, but cells from abortions will continue to be used in the current project and may be used again in the future if no alternatives can be found.

Vinnedge was "dismayed" by the decision and said Georgetown University had made compromises on endorsing the sanctity of human life.

She said she hoped the university stops using tissue from abortions once the current research project has concluded.

FitzGerald said Catholic institutions 10 years ago continued using vaccinations for chicken pox and measles-mumps-rubella that contained cells from aborted babies after the information came to light.

"The connection to the abortion was distant and remote enough to say that this in no way encouraged or facilitated further abortions," FitzGerald said.

Archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Gibbs told the Associated Press that McCarrick believes Georgetown is not out of step with Catholic teaching.

"Georgetown reviewed the concerns the Cardinal raised, and we're comfortable, and the cardinal's, comfortable with their response,'' Gibbs said. "A number of ethicists have reviewed it to ensure it's consistent with Catholic teaching.''

The cells in question in the current Georgetown research project are anywhere from 25 to 40 years old.

The four cell lines from aborted babies in Europe that were used were HEK-293, IMR-90, MRC-5 and WI-38. The first is derived from the kidney of a fetus, while the other three came from human fetal lung tissue.

IMR-90, MRC-5 and WI-38 are used to create vaccines for diseases such as chicken pox, rubella, hepatitis-A, rabies and polio. Of them, chicken pox is the only vaccine that has no alternative to the use of fetal cell lines.

According to the Washington Post, cells from abortions must be used in research in order to qualify for some NIH funding.

Vinnedge discovered the use of the cells at Georgetown after discovering on the Internet that the cells in question had come from abortions.

John Haas, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center said Georgetown University is the first educational facility to publicly confront the issue. He too justified the use of the cells from abortions.

"I don't see the moral difficulty in using these cell lines, because you're not contributing in any way to the abortions, which took place decades ago" Haas told the Post.

"However, there is the risk of leading people to think that (some Catholic institutions do not) consider abortion to be a great evil and are indifferent to it and willing to work with tissue that result from that kind of action."

The Georgetown University Right to Life group also became concerned about the use of cells from aborted babies.

"I was shocked when I found out that this could happen at Georgetown, a Catholic university," Laura Peirson, the pro-life group's president said. "We support medical research and want progress as much as anyone, but in this case, the ends don't justify the means, no matter how noble the ends."

Related web sites:
Georgetown University Medical Center - http://gumc.georgetown.edu

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