Farming Humans for Fun and Profit by Richard M. Doerflinger

"Farming” fetuses for body parts. Human/animal hybrids. Putting unborn humans in animal wombs. Buying and selling human embryos. Patenting human beings. Chapter headings for a science-fiction potboiler? No. Just a typical day at the office for members of the President’s Council on Bioethics.

On January 16, The President’s Council released a draft report that deserves attention from all Americans concerned about the use and abuse of science. Its title, “Biotechnology and Public Policy: Biotechnologies Affecting the Beginnings of Human Life,” is far from exciting; but its subject matter will put no one to sleep.

Practices like those listed above, says the Council, are abuses, pure and simple, and should be banned to protect the dignity of human procreation.

One such practice, though it sounds like science fiction, is as timely as this month’s headlines and shows the need to “prohibit the transfer of a human embryo (produced ex vivo) to a woman’s uterus for any purpose other than to attempt to produce a live-born child.”

The Council calls attention to the reality of this threat, noting that “ a number of animal experiments using assisted reproductive technologies have shown the value of initiating pregnancies purely for the purpose of research on embryonic and fetal development or for the purpose of securing tissues or organs for transplant.” While this may have some place in animal research, its expansion to humans would be horrific. “A woman and her womb,” says the report, “should not be regarded or used as a piece of laboratory equipment, as an ‘incubator’ for growing research materials, or as a ‘field’ for growing and harvesting body parts.”

The Council’s unanimous voice in opposition to fetus farms is especially noteworthy, given the fact that the majority of its members are “pro-choice” on abortion, and among the members there is a variety of opinions on cloning and other matters.

Obviously the Council’s report comes not a moment too soon. On January 4, New Jersey enacted a new law on human cloning that clears a path for fetus farms. It encourages the cloning of human embryos for research, but bans cultivating a cloned human “through the egg, embryo, fetal and newborn stages.” In other words: In New Jersey it is ok to create and gestate human embryos all you want, as long as you kill them for their cells and organs before they can be born.

The bill’s language is no accident. The national Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) has urged its state affiliates to enact such laws. BIO’s next target is Delaware, where a similar bill has been approved by the state senate and is poised for House action. This bill, endorsed by the director of the University of Delaware’s Biotechnology Institute, supports research in human cloning but bans implanting a cloned embryo in a womb “for gestation and subsequent birth.” Implanting with the intent of aborting and harvesting of tissue would be allowed.

Human cloning’s slippery slope toward complete dehumanization of human beings will not stop until the U.S. Senate passes Senator Brownback’s complete ban on human cloning. In the meantime, surely almost everyone can agree that proposals like those in New Jersey and Delaware demean the humanity of women and children alike.

The Council’s report can be found at http://bioethicsprint.bioethics.gov/background/bppinterim.html .

_______________________
Mr. Doerflinger is Deputy Director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

New Jersey Right to Life

Immediate Action needed! McGreevey inserts funding for cloning research into budget

McGreevey inserts money in budget to fund embryonic cloning research	Take Action!
Oppose efforts to fund embryonic cloning research in state budget

Governor McGreevey has announced plans to fund research authorized under A2840/S1909 which includes the creating of human embryos through cloning. The same process, somatic cell nuclear transplantation, used to create Dolly the Sheep and used by South Korean scientists on February 12 is expressly authorized under the NJ bill. The day after news reports revealed that South Korean scientists had created human embryos through this technique, McGreevey sent a letter to his Health and Senior Services Commissioner, asking him to promote this research. See NJRTL's Press Release. NJRTL's Press Release Governor McGreevey's statement Act now. Activate your phone, fax and email networks to generate as much activity as possible. Contact your State Senator and two Assembly members ASAP. Urge them to o ppose this funding and instead support funding for adult stem cell research only. You can send an email to both your State Senators and two Assembly members directly from this page by going to the "Take Action" button on top of this page. To see how your legislators voted on A2840/S1909, you can find this information on our legislative webpage. See NY Times article below. February 21, 2004 New Jersey Governor Puts Stem Cell Research in Budget Plan By LAURA MANSNERUS NY Times TRENTON, Feb. 20 - Gov. James E. McGreevey will use his budget message next Tuesday to announce a plan to make New Jersey the first state to finance research on human embryonic stem cells, officials in the governor's office said Friday. In most states, official efforts have focused on how to limit such research, which opponents view as unethical, and President Bush has cut off federal financing for most projects. But Mr. McGreevey is setting a different course. Last month, he signed largely symbolic legislation authorizing stem cell research, making New Jersey the second state, after California, to support it explicitly. The budget would take the next step: providing $6.5 million for a research institute, to be run by Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Mr. McGreevey's plan calls for $50 million over five years, including both state and private funds, for the institute, which would be built in New Brunswick. Dr. Wise Young, chairman of cell biology and neuroscience at Rutgers and an author of the governor's plan, said he and other researchers hoped to recruit about a dozen of "the best stem cell scientists in the world," which he estimated would require about $25 million. "Everybody understands that because of current federal restrictions on stem cell funding, if you don't put money behind it, it's not going to change very much," Dr. Yo ung said. But, as the recent development of human embryos from cloned cells by South Korean scientists has shown, religious and ethical concerns surround stem cell research. Opponents say the research is unethical because it starts with the destruction of a human embryo. Because of such concerns, President Bush in 2001 ordered the National Institutes of Health not to provide any funds for research on human embryonic cells except those colonies, or "lines," already cultivated at research centers. Researchers and advisers to the governor said Friday that they knew of no state other than New Jersey that directly supports stem cell research. But California has a lead in research talent and private funds, having attracted both when it enacted its stem cell research legislation in 2002. Several states are scrambling to become centers for biotechnology companies and university researchers in stem cell research. Many expect that it wi ll eventually transform medicine. In California, a ballot initiative now under way would raise $3 billion over 10 years for stem cell research. Stem cells are found in human embryos, umbilical cords and placentas. The stem cells harvested from human embryos can be induced to grow into any kind of tissue in the body, and researchers believe that by studying them, they can learn how to create stem cells from any kind of cells. The goal is generating cells to be used in treating degenerative diseases and brain and spinal cord injuries. The New Jersey Assembly waged a furious debate over the stem cell research legislation, which did not authorize any practices that were not already legal but assured researchers that the state would not interfere. The measure was approved more easily in the Senate. In California, Stanford University received a $12 million gift to establish a stem cell research center, as have several other private universities , including Columbia University. But Dr. Ira Black, who worked on the proposal for Mr. McGreevey, said, "This, I do believe, will vault New Jersey into a world leadership position." Dr. Black, a stem cell researcher at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, added that the research "should touch every disease I can think of," including Alzheimer's, diabetes, stroke and heart disease. Paul J. Byrne, the chairman of New Jersey Right to Hope, an organization of patient advocacy groups, said that "everything is exploding around the world" in stem cell research and that Mr. McGreevey was the only governor in the position of bringing it to the United States. The research institute will constitute an item in the governor's budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. While it does not require a separate legislative appropriation, the plan is expected to renew the debate that flared last fall over the research bill. "You need the legislature's support no matter what," Dr. Young said. "Whether you can slip it in or not is not the issue. This is too high-profile to slip it in." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/21/nyregion/21jersey.html

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Life Issues Forum

Farming Humans for Fun and Profitby Richard M. Doerflinger

Farming Humans for Fun and Profit
by Richard M. Doerflinger