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The National Right
to Life Committee (NRLC) today sent a letter to members of the U.S. House of
Representatives "to warn you that there is a substantial chance that you
will soon see an attempt to ram through the House of Representatives, on
short notice, legislation that would authorize federal funding of research on
human embryos created specifically to be used in research, and open the door
to federal funding of human cloning and human embryo farms."
The letter explains that, contrary to assurances given to Members of
Congress and the public in the past, anticipated forthcoming legislation
dealing with stem cell research will not limit the National Institutes
of Health (NIH) to the use of human embryos who are donated by their
parents after being "left over" at in vitro fertilization
clinics, but will also empower NIH to use human embryos created
especially to be used in research, including embryos created by
human cloning.
The NRLC letter explains:
A legislative “bait and switch” is in the works. We anticipate that the
forthcoming “embryonic stem cell research” legislation (1) will give NIH
authority broad enough to fund research that uses not only “leftover” human
embryos but also created-for-research human embryos, including embryos created
by human cloning; and (2) may be coupled with a clone-and-kill provision,
which will be labeled as a “ban on human cloning” but which will actually
define “human cloning” in a manner that allows the mass creation of human
embryos by cloning, for the purpose of using them in research that will kill
them. The pro-cloning side hopes to smuggle through these radical
policy changes on this authorization legislation, and then follow up by
gutting or repealing the Dickey-Wicker provision on the Health and Human
Services appropriations bill for FY 2010.
The letter concludes:
Whatever legislation dealing with embryonic stem cell research and human
cloning is actually brought before the House will be accurately described in
NRLC’s scorecard of key right-to-life roll calls of the 111th Congress.
If, as we fear, the forthcoming legislation allows the creation of human
embryos by cloning for use in research that will kill them, and grants NIH
the authority to fund research that lethally exploits human embryos who were
especially created for research, then a vote for that legislation will be
accurately described as a vote in favor of federal taxpayer support for human
cloning and human embryo farms.
To view or download the entire NRLC letter in PDF format, click here.
To easily send appropriate messages to members of Congress in opposition for
the forthcoming embryo-related legislation, click here. # # # To return to the TRL Home Page, click here. |
