WASHINGTON (May 18, 2005) — Cardinal William H. Keeler has urged
Congress to reject a bill which would use federal funds to encourage
researchers to destroy new human embryos from fertility clinics for stem
cell research.
H.R. 810 would rescind the Bush administration’s policy of funding
only research on embryonic stem cell lines already in existence. Saying
that the new bill would encourage large-scale destruction of innocent
human life for research purposes, the Cardinal said: “I urge you in the
strongest possible terms to oppose all destructive and morally offensive
proposals of this kind.”
Cardinal Keeler is Chairman of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities
of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“Government has no business forcing taxpayers to become complicit in
the direct destruction of human life at any stage,” Cardinal Keeler said
in a May 17 letter to the House of Representatives. “Nor is there any
point in denying the scientific fact that human life is exactly what is
at stake here.”
The Cardinal noted that since 1995 Congress has passed – and
Presidents of both major parties have signed – annual riders insisting
that early human embryos be protected from risk of harm or death in
federally funded research projects. “H.R. 810 radically departs from
this precedent by encouraging researchers to kill human embryos, or pay
others to kill them, to become eligible for federal stem cell research
grants,” he wrote.
“It would be bad enough to promote such destruction of life if it had
been found necessary to save patients with devastating diseases,”
Cardinal Keeler said. “In such a case it would be important to remember
that the end, however worthwhile in itself, does not justify an evil
means.”
But the argument for funding embryonic stem cell (ESC) research is
doubly flawed, wrote the Cardinal, because adult stem cells and other
avenues posing no moral problem have advanced quickly toward human
clinical trials to treat juvenile diabetes, corneal damage, Parkinson’s
disease, spinal cord injury, sickle-cell anemia, cardiac damage and many
other conditions. “At the same time, researchers increasingly
acknowledge that the apparent initial ‘promise’ of ESCs was
exaggerated,” Cardinal Keeler said. “For example, because of their
genetic instability and tendency to form potentially lethal tumors in
host animals, these cells may not be ready for human clinical trials for
many years, if ever.”
“At this point in medical science,” Cardinal Keeler continued, “the
question is not whether alternative ways are available to pursue the
therapeutic goals served by ESCs -- rather, it is whether ESCs will ever
catch up with the therapeutic benefits now arising from the
alternatives.”
“The current federal policy of funding research on a limited number
of existing ESC lines has achieved its stated goal -- that of exploring
which avenues of stem cell research will most quickly and effectively
lead to promising treatments,” Cardinal Keeler stated. “The emerging
answer is that ESC research is not one of those avenues. If there is to
be any change in the existing policy, it should be to end this limited
funding of ESC research altogether, so taxpayers’ resources can more
effectively be marshaled for research now showing itself to be more
ethically and medically sound.”
The full text of Cardinal Keeler’s letter can be found on the Web at
www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/bioethic/stemcell/keeler517.pdf.