NEWS BRIEFS Feb-9-2004
By Catholic News Service
U.S.
Pro-life group takes on Georgetown over aborted fetal cell lines
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Florida pro-life group headed by a Catholic woman has pledged to continue its efforts to stop research at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington that uses cell lines derived from aborted fetuses. "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," says a petition addressed to Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington on the Web site www.cogforlife.org, which is the site of the organization Children of God for Life. The petition asks the cardinal to "use your authority and put an end to the unnecessary use of aborted fetal cell lines, which actually diverts important funding and hinders other noble and morally responsible research." Debra L. Vinnedge, a member of St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Clearwater, Fla., who is president and executive director of Children of God for Life, told Catholic News Service in a Feb. 6 telephone interview that the petition had received 2,000 online signatures in less than a week.
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20040209.htm