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How the Republican National Platform Has Remained Pro-Life -- Fall ...

But, there are clouds on the horizon and they were visible during the full Platform Committee meeting. Cathie Adams who, along with Kelly Shackleford, represented Texas on the Platform Committee, offered an amendment banning research that involves the killing of human embryos. She felt it was important to raise the issue and debate it this year so that the public would know that pro-life Republicans are not satisfied with current administration policy on embryonic stem cell research. But, because an estimated 75% of the Committee members were Republican officials of some sort, the Bush campaign exerted almost absolute control so that nothing went into the Platform that they didn’t approve. And they did not want the Party on record in support of a total ban. Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee who chaired the Committee managed to table the amendment so that no debate could take place. In addition, he made a 15 minute speech about stem cell research, making clear his position that embryonic stem cell research must continue and be expanded, albeit without federal funding.

Make no mistake about it. 2008 could turn into a real donnybrook over the fate of the human embryo. Whether the human embryo will be respected and protected under the law as a human subject is, without a doubt, the linchpin of the pro-life cause. The United States must ban any scientific experiments that involve the killing of human beings at their earliest stage of development. The funding issue is irrelevant. The morality of killing living human embryos is not determined by who pays for it. Germany has imposed such a ban because they remember Nuremberg. So should we. The pro-life cause has met its ultimate challenge. If the tiniest humans can be killed to benefit others, no one is safe. Because of this, we are re-dedicating RNC/Life to our mission of holding Republican candidates and office-holders accountable to pro-life principles and we will work even harder to complete the Plank in 2008 by adding language calling for a ban on killing human embryos.

Please consider this an appeal to you from a fellow former embryo for your help and support as we pursue our goal of legal protection for every innocent human life.

After all, "A person’s a person, no matter how small."

Jesus, in Matthew 19:18 reiterated Deuteronomy 5:17 "You must not murder," and that Paul stated in Romans 13:3 "For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 13:4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions…. --And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. ^{NARA | The National Archives Experience}

"The Virginia Declaration of Rights strongly influenced Thomas Jefferson in writing the first part of the Declaration of Independence. It later provided the foundation for the Bill of Rights." ^{The Foundation for the National Archives}
"I - That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety." ^{Virginia Declaration of Rights}
Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence, acknowledged the source of Rights and expressed the fundamental purpose of government: "....all Men are created equal...endowed by their Creator with...unalienable Rights, that among these are Life....to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted...." ^{Declaration of Independence : July 4, 1776}
Preamble to the U.S. Constitution," We the People of the United States, in Order to....secure the Blessings of Liberty to...our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution...." ^Preamble
"No person shall be...deprived of life...without due process of law...."^{Amendment V}
The National Lawyers Association takes the position that the practical effect of the legal connection or relationship between the Declaration and the Constitution is that the Constitution is to be interpreted in the light of the principles set forth in the Declaration.[...] The Preamble introduces and explains the purpose of The U.S. Constitution, and links it to The Declaration of Independence." The Preface to the United States Code - Annotated states that "this code is the official restatement in convenient form of the general and permanent laws of the United States in force December 7, 1925...." The Preface also states that there is also contained therein a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Ordinance of 1787 and the Constitution with Amendments. ^{Robert C. Cannada, Senior Counsel, Butler, Snow, O'Mara, Stevens & Cannada, PLLC, Jackson, Mississippi, "America's Choice: A Limited Government Or A Totalitarian Government," The National Lawyers Association Review, Winter 1996.}
Science and rational demonstration prove that a human exists from the moment of conception ^{FT January 2003: Constitutional Persons}^{, Robert H. Bork}
Ethic of Reciprocity - Every person shares certain inherent human rights, simply because of their membership in the human race.

Jefferson & Paul agree that the fundamental purpose of government is to secure rights granted by God by punishing evil and he discovers that it does 'outside the abortion context.'

The laws of the 30 states that recognize the unlawful killing of an unborn child as homicide in at least some circumstances. ^{State Unborn Victim Laws}
State: Homicide laws of all 50 states protect human life and the dignity of every human being--especially the vulnerable; laws of many states already specifically protect vulnerable embryonic human beings outside the womb; most prohibit destructive human embryo and human fetal research. National: The present Congressional ban on federally-funded human embryo research explicitly excludes "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death"; existing laws requiring separation between the death of an unborn child in abortion and research objectives using the unborn child's tissues preclude the destruction of human embryos as a means of achieving research objectives. International: Documents such as the Nuremburg Code, the World Medical Association's Declaration of Helsinki, and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights reject the use of human beings in experimental research without their informed consent and permit research on incompetent subjects only if there is a legal surrogate, minimal risk, and therapeutic benefit for the human subject. ^{stemcellresearch.org - Founding Statement}
It may strike some as surprising that legal protection of embryonic human beings can co-exist with the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 legalization of abortion.²⁹ However, the Supreme Court has never prevented the government from protecting prenatal life outside the abortion context,³⁰ and public sentiment also seems even more opposed to government funding of embryo experimentation than to the funding of abortion.³¹ The laws of a number of states-including Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Utah-specifically protect embryonic human beings outside the womb. Most of these provisions prohibit experiments on embryos outside the womb.³² ^{CBHD: On Human Embryos and Stem Cell Research}