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WASHINGTON (September 14, 1999) -- The President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) issued a statement today (September 14) on the final report of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission.
"This week the National Bioethics Advisory Commission acknowledged 'wide agreement' in our society 'that human embryos deserve respect as a form of human life,'" said Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza. "Its final report on stem cell research nonetheless urges the federal government to fund the destruction of human embryos for research purposes. Surely the Commission must realize that destroying life is no way to show respect for it," Bishop Fiorenza said.
Following is the full text of Bishop Fiorenza's statement, issued during the bi-annual meeting of the 60-member Administrative Committee of the NCCB.
"This week the National Bioethics Advisory Commission acknowledged 'wide agreement' in our society 'that human embryos deserve respect as a form of human life.' Its final report on stem cell research nonetheless urges the federal government to fund the destruction of human embryos for research purposes. Surely the Commission must realize that destroying life is no way to show respect for it.
The Commission calls for funding of embryo destruction even while admitting that it may well be unnecessary --concluding that embryonic germ cells from fetal tissue, for example, have the same properties as cells obtained by destroying embryos. Though given little consideration by the Commission, adult stem cells pose no moral problem and are far more promising for medical research than was once thought.
On one point the Commission's candor is refreshing. It criticizes the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for claiming it can fund the use of embryonic stem cells without becoming involved in destroying embryos. That claim, says the Commission, is based on a 'mistaken notion' that the two activities can be separated in ethics or practice.
The NIH should stop trying to evade the law against funding harmful embryo research, and allow our elected representatives to debate this issue. Congress should fund promising stem cell research --excluding research which, as almost everyone agrees, will destroy human lives that deserve our respect."