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Contributors
Sharon
Hughes- Contributor
A researcher,
writer and public speaker Sharon is the President and Executive
Director of The Center for Changing Worldviews, a non-profit
corporation founded for the purpose of increasing the conservative,
pro-family voice in a predominantly liberal society. Sharon
produces and hosts Changing Worldviews TALK Radio which is
the media outreach of The Center, and is heard Monday, Wednesday
and Friday on KDIA AM1640 San Francisco/Vallejo and online
daily at Oneplace.com. Sharon has worked to promote civic
responsibility on the grassroots level since 1992 through
various organizations such as Eagle Forum, so that America
will continue to be a land of liberty, respect for human
dignity and family integrity, as well as public and private
virtue. For further information on Sharon and The Center
go to www.changingworldviews.com or
contact her at sharon@changingworldviews.com. Hughes
Blog [go
to Hughes index]
 From
Sci-fi to Sci-Fact
Panel Releases New Embryonic Stem Cell Research Guidelines…
[Sharon Hughes] 5/4/05
No longer
just a plot in the movies, scientists can now merge species,
such as Alba
the florescent bunny.
Not only that, but they can merge man and animals, man and
machine, reproduce outside of the womb, and clone humans as
well as their cats. To some these are exciting break-throughs
in bio-technology, to others it's like a sci-fi thriller or
nightmare.
As reported
in the San Francisco Chronicle on Wednesday, April 27, 2005,
a 20-member panel picked by the
National Academies,
a Congress commissioned independent organization, released their
131-page report with guidelines for human embryonic stem cell
research "offering a system of institutional self-policing
as a way to move the politically contentious research forward." These
guidelines, while applying to all stem cell research, would be
voluntary.
The guidelines include:
1) Consent
needs to be obtained from the donor before an embryo can
be used to produce stem cells.
2) Human embryos used for research should be discarded
after 14 days.
3) Human stem cells should not be introduced into other
humans or non-human primates.
4) Human stem cells can be introduced into non-human mammals
when no other experiment can provide the information needed.
5) No animal into which stem cells have been introduced
should be allowed to breed.
The panel
also addressed two aspects of cloning recommending that cloning
for reproductive purposes is unethical
and should
not be done, however, a cloning technique used to create embryos
for therapeutic purposes, called nuclear transfer, could be used
which "may be needed to cultivate a patient's own stem cells".
The new guidelines
are "critical" to California being
able to spend the $3 billion Prop 71 authorized the state to
spend on stem cell and cloning research last year. Senator Dianne
Feinstein, D-CA and others re-introduced a bill in the Senate
last week that contains similar provisions as the new guidelines.
However, Republicans do not favor the bill or "destroying
young human lives for the benefit of others," as represented
by Senator Sam Brownback R-KS.
Please take
note that these are voluntary guidelines using the word 'should'
versus 'must' or 'must not', including
that human
embryos "used for research should not be grown in culture
for more than 14 days." In other words, 'should' be destroyed.
I want to encourage everyone to do some research on how the
eugenics movement began in Germany, as well as here in the United
States before WWII...with the doctors. Edwin Black, the five-time
Pulitzer Prize nominee, has done extensive research on this subject
in his books, War on the Weak, IBM and the Holocaust, and others.
His commentaries can also be found on our website at www.changingworldviews.com.
If we continue to devalue human life and allow it's destruction
in the name of research or for any other reason, then it will
only be a matter of time until we see more cases such as Terri
Schiavo's, the acceptance of doctor-assisted suicide, and the
killing of defective babies after they are born, up to three
months old, as advocated by Peter Singer of Princeton University.
Where will we draw the line on what we will and will not do
to humans? Will we stand by and watch this kind of sci-fi become
sci-fact? It's our choice. We each have a voice. Will we use
it, is the question. tOR
© Sharon
Hughes 2005 - Used with permission
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