|
'08 Walk for Life * PICTURES FROM 2006 MARCH FOR LIFE * Pregnancy Centers          About Us Volunteer Donate Home |
Dr. David Stevens, executive director of the Christian Medical Association, spoke out Thursday at a press conference of groups seeking to stop federal funding for this research. "History shows the terrible price to be paid, as in the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, when we violate this right to life. The tragedies that result when unethical means are used to pursue even laudable ends. And so we admonish the government to respect and protect human life from its earliest phase," Stevens said. The Christian Medical Association has joined with other faith-based medical groups, scientists and legal organizations in filing a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health. The suit seeks to enjoin the NIH from granting funds for embryonic stem cell research. Although there has been a long-standing statutory ban on federal funding of research in which human embryos are destroyed, former President Clinton issued an executive order skirting the ban in order to permit the NIH to grant federal money to those who wish to conduct this type of research. The lawsuit was filed in advance of a March 15 deadline for funding applications. After that date, the NIH will determine which groups will receive the grants, and the plaintiffs hope to preclude disbursement of the money. Stevens said, "The inalienable right to life that our founding fathers spoke of cannot be bestowed or removed by legislators, bureaucrats or judges. It is an intrinsic heritage of every human being, whether he or she is a multi-cell embryo in a petri dish, a newborn baby in the cradle or an adult like you or I." The Christian Medical Association advocates ethical stem cell research that does not involve the destruction of human embryos.
By Benjamin Gill Copyright 2001 Jay Sekulow and the ACLJ
Be a TLC Lifeguard
Before You Leave...
|