Stem-Cell Talking Points

Confused?

Here are some "Talking Points" - Key Concepts For Clarity, to Help You

Fertilized Egg at 30 hours!

For Human Life in All of Its Forms

3 Week Old Blastocyst

Issues Addressed by Right to Life Organizations

1) Abortion

2) Infanticide

3) Euthanasia

4) Embryos for Human Cloning Experiments

5) Embryos used for Stem Cell Research (ESCR)

Embryonic Human Cloning - Definition

Human cloning is a proposed process in which genetic material from one person would be artificially transferred into a human or animal egg cell and let it develop into an embryo, thereby beginning the life of a new human individual who has only one parent and who is genetically identical to that parent

Embryonic Stem Cell Research (ESCR) - Issues

Note: The Harvesting of cells kills embryos

The Following are Euphemisms, Rationalizations and Positions

Euphemisms: Proponents like Advanced Cell Technologies have introduced euphemisms as detoxifying language, to sanitize a repugnant practice: Example - referring to embryos in the zygote and blastocyst as embryolike entity - however, they don't differ, they are still human--a rose by any other name is still a rose-- the word is a euphemism.

C. Ben Mitchell, Ph.D., Ethicist, Washington Times 07/15/01

If it is not in the womb it is not human

Personhood (human) is not situational whether fertilization/conception occurs in a fallopian tube or a petri dish - a zygote is still a now living human

It's OK to dismember an embryo if it's unwanted

It's not OK to dismember an in vitro fertilized (IVF) embryo if it's unwanted - Tragedy isn't inevitable…do something to avert it…facilitate their implantation in women who want to adopt them

Embryo dismemberment is pro-life and pro-family

This rationalization by pro-choicers and recently by wavering pro-lifers is in today's news - however, the life that is helped is not the life that is killed

William Saletan, Cell Out; www.slate.com

Embryo adoption offers hope for children to some 2 million infertile married couples in America and affords every embryo an opportunity to be born

: Marlene Strege, co-founder of Snowflakes Adoption Program - www.snowflakes.org;
as reported by NRLC Concerned Women for America, 07/15/01,: Testimony before Fed. Comm. Opportunities and Advancements in Stem Cell Research, 07/17/01

Adult stem cell research and medical advances have far outpaced the progress in embryonic stem cell research.


Dr. David Prentice, Professor Life Sciences Indiana State University,: Adjunct Professor Medical and Molecular Geneics at Indiana University School of Medicine

Alternative Sources for Stem Cell Research that don't entail the killing of the embryos include Umbilical Cords, Placentas, Bone Marrow, and Fat Tissues.

Embryonic stem cells seem more active, but this may actually make them less desirable since their biology may be impossible to control and could lead to the development of tumors.

Federal Funding of ESCR gives the imprimatur (official approval) of the people to treat human life as a mere natural resource, a crop, ripe for harvest.

Wesley J. Smith, Attorney and Citizen Advocate: "When Life Really Begins", National Review, 07/19/01

"You can't have it both ways. You can't profess to be pro-life and support experimentation on these tiny children that will result in their deaths. As physicians we first pledge to do no harm. Senator Frist's decision flies in the face of a doctor's primary responsibility."

"Advancements science is making with stem cells from adult tissue…question the very need for this highly controversial embryonic research. These positive results with adult cells do not require the death of unborn children."

John Willke, M.D., Founder of NRLC: Life Issues Institute, 07/19/01

It is "...wrong to destroy (an embryo) in the womb or outside it (and with or without federal funding)..."

Ramesh Ponnuru, Editor, National Review, 07/19/01

"Indeed, society must be very careful when it puts its hand on the switch of life. By design or default, we could easily begin a dangerous journey down the 'slippery slope.' Embryonic stem cell research points down that path. And, by appropriating taxpayers' money for such experiments with human life, our elected officials would make all of us unwitting partners along the way."

Cardinal Adam Maida, Detroit, Michigan

"That's a very scary thing when we start playing God and determine whose life is considered to be a high quality life and whose life is disposable. You can't be pro-life and also pro-embryonic stem cell research. To be pro-life, you must respect life even if it's in a petri dish."

Heather, Cirmo, Family Research Council, 07/18/01

"…the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), a powerful lobby with considerable clout in Congress, announced it will launch a major television and print advertising campaign (in the multi-million dollar range) to create pressure on President Bush to allow federal funding of embryo destructive stem cell research.

"…the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine at the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Virginia issued a press release, saying that scientists there 'have successfully created new tissue lines using sperm and eggs purchased explicitly for that purpose'."

Dave Andrusko. Today's New & Views, 07/11/01;: Quoting the Chicago Tribune, New York Times & Washington Post

"The reason that these cells can develop into the many different kinds of human tissue that medical researchers feel can help treat certain diseases is because they are living human beings to begin with."

Dianne N. Irving, Research Biochemist and Ph.D. in Philosophy: Instructs Medical Ethics at Georgetown and Catholic Universities

"On July 12, the Washington Post reported that a major biotechnology firm, Advanced Cell Technology of Worcester, Massachusetts, already has a project underway to mass-produce human embryos by cloning, in order to use them in experimentation that will kill them - a practice the bio-tech industry refers to as 'therapeutic cloning.'."

National Right to Life Press Release, 07/24/01