PA candidate supports Conscience Clause

Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research

As per Cardinal Rigali's 11/20/07 statement, "Studies published this week in the journals Cell and Science offer new hope for advancing stem cell research and therapies while fully respecting the dignity of human life" <www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2007/07-194.shtml>. Unfortunately, some have misinterpreted this promising news, naively believing that unethical stem cell research will readily be discarded.

The rise of the IVF industry has created an unbelievable number of "excess" human embryos. As per a 2/17/08 piece by Ed Langlois, "Worldwide, four million embryos are frozen, one million of them in the U.S." <www.sentinel.org/node/8787>. The opportunity to "donate" embryos for research provides an anesthetic to the consciences of some parents. Because this practice has helped to foster powerful denials about some of the inherent evils of the IVF industry, it is unlikely to easily fade away.

In the newly published "Embryo: A Defense of Human Life" (Doubleday, January 2008), Princeton University's Robert George and the University of South Carolina's Christopher Tollefsen debunk all the misguided ethical and/or junk science attempts to deny that human embryos are human beings. Because they are human beings, no one has the right to kill or otherwise wrong human embryos. Every Pro-life American needs to stay aware that our need to defend our youngest brothers and sisters has not come to an end - not by a long shot.

The Holy Father is certainly well aware that our need to defend human embryos against unethical research has not come to an end. In a 1/31/08 address to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Pope Benedict XVI rhetorically asked: "When human beings, in the weakest and most defenceless stage of their lives are selected, abandoned, killed or used as mere 'biological material', how can it be denied that they are no longer being treated as 'someone' but rather as 'something', hence, calling into question the very concept of human dignity?" <www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2008/january/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20080131_dottrina-fede_en.html>.

"A Person's A Person, No Matter How Small" (Dr. Seuss)

They're Off to See Some Wizard

(Click the title, to see this review on Amazon.com)

The promises held out by promoters of human embryonic stem cell research are akin to the empty promises which kept Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Lion, and Toto blissfully following the Yellow Brick Road. Yet, my analogy falls far short of adequately depicting the ethical and scientific blindness, which promoters of human embryonic stem cell research have embraced, in the hope of Oz-like treasures awaiting them in their own Emerald City.

To this new gang of misdirected travelers, Princeton University's Robert George and the University of South Carolina's Christopher Tollefsen offer the Ruby Slippers of "Embryo: A Defense of Human Life." George and Tollefsen remind us that "No one would object to the use of embryonic stem cells in biomedical research or therapy if they could be derived without killing or in any way wronging the embryos. Nor would anyone object to using such cells if they could be obtained using embryos lost in spontaneous abortions" [i.e., miscarriages] (p. 6).

George and Tollefsen masterfully debunk the various misguided ethical and/or junk science attempts to deny the very humanity of human embryos. The resplendent grandeur of ethical and scientific truth glows amidst the falsehoods of con artists - be they the stranded balloonist of Oz or hawkers of human embryonic stem cell research.

Because they are human beings, no one has the right to kill or otherwise wrong human embryos. Unfortunately, George and Tollefsen conclude with political, technological, and cultural recommendations, which do not adequately condemn the barbaric ways in which people of our time have come to treat the youngest members of the human race. They also suggest some alternatives, which have not yet - admittedly - undergone rigorous moral evaluation. I would like to offer an edited version of their recommendations, with which I believe others could concur:

• "The United States should acknowledge, in law, the obligation to protect embryonic human life by prohibiting all embryo-destructive research" (p. 210).


• "The United States should significantly increase federal funding for [morally acceptable] research into...stem cells" (p. 214).


• "The United States should...[ban] the production of human embryos in IVF procedures" (p. 216).

excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI's 1/26/08 Address to the Roman Rota

"The value of interventions of the Ecclesiastical Magisterium on matrimonial and juridical issues, including the Roman Pontiff's Discourses to the Roman Rota....are a ready guide for the work of all Church tribunals, since they authoritatively teach the essential aspects of the reality of marriage. In his last Address to the Rota, my venerable Predecessor John Paul II put people on guard against the positivistic mentality in the understanding of law, which tends to make a distinction between laws and jurisprudential approaches and the Church's doctrine. He affirmed: 'In fact, the authentic interpretation of God's Word, exercised by the Magisterium of the Church, has juridical value to the extent that it concerns the context of law, without requiring any further formal procedure to become juridically and morally binding. 'For a healthy juridical interpretation, it is indispensable to understand the whole body of the Church's teachings and to place every affirmation systematically in the flow of tradition. It will thus be possible to avoid selective and distorted interpretations and useless criticisms at every step' (John Paul II, Address to Roman Rota, 29 January 2005).