The Catholic Church ALLOWS Stem Cell Research

Four hours ago, our local TV news misstated* that the Catholic Church opposes Stem Cell Research. (Co-anchor Rosanna Scotto, NYC Fox 5 News, Friday, Oct. 29, 2004, 10 p.m.) My BP rose and I almost hit the roof... As of late, this is typical "journalism" from the fourth estate. But don't believe them. It's NOT true. It is WRONG to say or think that the Catholic Church "does not support" Stem Cell Research! The Catholic Church does NOT OPPOSE it.

(* I don't believe that FOX News was telling a deliberate lie or being malicious. Rather, it fell victim to the misinformation campaign of John Kerry, The Apostate Altar Boy. However, Rosanna Scotto of Brooklyn is a graduate of Catholic University no less and she should have qualified her remarks.)

Rather, The Church Catholic DOES support Adult Stem Cell Research which is already helping people with heart disease, spinal cord injury, Parkinson's and many other diseases.

But it DOES NOT support EMBRYONIC Stem Cell Research or the preparation of embryos solely for the purpose of destroying them by using the remaining cells for any kind of medical or scientific research.

Zygotes are souls created by God - human lives. Disposal of them is just as much MURDER as abortion is. The ONLY purpose of this kind of research is to undermine the American campaign to respect all human life from the moment of conception.

"No circumstance, no purpose, no law whatsoever can ever make licit an act which is intrinsically illicit, since it is contrary to the Law of God which is written within every human heart, knowable by reason itself and proclaimed by The Church!" [Encyclical of Pope John Paul the Great, "The Gospel of Life" ("Evangelium Vitae"), paragraph 62.]

Neither can mad scientists experiment on the corpses of "already dead anyway" abortions. I'm sure you're smart enough to figure out that lame rationalization yourself, so I won't insult your intelligence by explaining why.

Embryonic stem cells have NOT helped even one single patient. And those who tout this kind of research have nothing to base it on since it lacks a proven track record. So far, there has NOT even been successful treatment in mice, and no specific help for humans is on the horizon. Worse, it engenders false hopes in the desperate.

NOT the treatment or cure for Alzheimer's

On June 10th a Washington Post article debunked false claims that stem cells could provide a cure for Alzheimer's. "I think the chance of doing repairs to Alzheimer's brains by putting in stem cells is small," said stem cell researcher Michael Shelanski, co-director of the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York. "The Reagan-inspired tidal wave of enthusiasm stands as an example of how easily a modest line of scientific inquiry can grow in the public mind to mythological proportions," observed the article.

Objections were also raised to abusing Reagan's name to justify stem cell research. "Ronald Reagan's record reveals that no issue was of greater importance to him than the dignity and sanctity of all human life," commented William Clark, national security adviser and secretary of the interior under Reagan, in the New York Times on June 11. Clark also argued that Reagan would also have been unlikely to favor using government funds for such research. "He understood the significance of putting the imprimatur of the nation, through public financing, behind questionable research," said Clark. In fact, he noted that Reagan put in place a de facto ban on federal funding of embryo research during his presidency.

Regardless of these facts, little Ron Reagan, Jr. -- who never missed an opportunity to besmirch his late father's principles and ideals or rebel against his GOP positions -- spoke at the Democratic National Convention and advocated for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research anyway. John Kerry had him give the impression that the kid is pleading for something that would have improved the quality of his Gipper's life. Tragic, yet disingenuous.

Not only did he embarrass and dishonor his esteemed father's memory, he -- along with several other VIP drama personalities -- became a chief operative behind a national disinformation campaign. Because of his reverence for human life, the late President would NEVER advocate for (nor approve of his family doing same) such scientific experimentation. It requires the creating of a human embryo by cloning and then the killing of that human life to harvest his or her stem cells. It's an attempt to play God in the worst possible way!

His other son, Michael, recently wrote, "My father, as do I, opposed the creation of human embryos for the sole purpose of using their stem cells as possible medical cures..."

A National Review article this week also stated that near the end of his life, actor Christopher Reeve, who became a paraplegic after an accidental fall, “apparently began to realize that embryonic stem cells were NOT the magic bullet he had assumed them to be.” The report also stated that the actor, famous for his film roles as Superman and a Monsignor, felt that “far from claiming that this avenue offered ‘biological miracles,’ or was the best or only hope for patients like him, he felt they were ‘not able to do much’ for him.”

Proponents of this agenda will stoop to any level to achieve their ungodly goals. John Kerry grossly exaggerates the potential gains from Embryonic Stem Cell Research by misstating, "100 million Americans suffer from one disease or another that's chronically debilitating." (Indicating that more than one in every three Americans has a debilitating disease.) In fact, 12 percent of the population, or about 35 million Americans, have “limitation of activity caused by chronic conditions.”

Kerry's conjectured wrong figure comes from the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research, an organization that advocates therapeutic cloning for the purpose of scientific study and TOTALS this number of people who “suffer from cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, Parkinson’s, spinal cord injuries, heart disease, A.L.S. and other devastating conditions for which treatments must still be found.” In 2001, the Census Bureau reported that 53 million Americans had “some level of disability” and that 33 million had “a severe disability.”

On Aug. 9, 2001, President George W. Bush ordered the National Institutes of Health not to fund research on stem cells taken from embryos destroyed after that date. Subsequently, the NIH identified a number of stem cell lines that met the guidelines and could receive government funding.

Eric Cohen, a consultant to President Bush's Council on Bioethics, objected to the destruction of human life resulting from stem cell research. Writing in USA Today on June 8, 2004 Cohen argued that while the embryos destroyed may be small, "size does not define a person's humanity." And while they many not have had a chance to develop human consciousness at such an early stage, "human dignity does not reside in our consciousness alone." Cohen also noted that the Bush policy does not impede research in the private sector, but instead avoids "forcing all taxpayers to support new embryo destruction."

Embryonic stem cell research is hastening without any federal funds. New Jersey Governor James McGreevey recently signed legislation last spring establishing a state-supported research center. The Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey will be run jointly by Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. McGreevey proposed $6.5 million for the institute within his budget.

This Election Day, Calif. voters will decide Proposition 71, the $3-billion bond measure to fund human embryonic stem-cell research.

Such proposed legislation would make it legal to clone embryos using taxpayer money. Under the proposal the clones would be destroyed within 14 days and used only for research. It seeks to cure people by turning people into a commodity. The next step would go from 14-day-old cloned embryos to fetal farming -- manufacturing fetuses to harvest body parts.

To cure is to endure. But taking one life to save another would not be a cure. Such means could never justify the end. A principle often overlooked by allies of embryonic stem cell research is that, "It is never morally licit to do evil intentionally in order to achieve ends that are good in themselves." (9th General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, The Vatican, February 2003.)