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Why All The Fuss Over Embryo Stem Cell Research?

Editor's Note:

During the last few months, one couldn't pick up a newspaper or listen to or watch a television news broadcast without the issue of embryonic stem cell research being raised.

Obviously there is an awful lot of fuss and controversy over the issue.

The debate arises because the use of an embryo's stem cell for research results in the embryo's death - the death of a human life. The media, however, has remained strangely silent about the fact that there are better, more reliable sources of stems cells for research. Why then this intense focus on embryo stem cells?

According to Randall Terry of the US Operation Rescue, and a well-known American radio commentator, what is really at stake in this debate is the future of the pro-life movement. He believes that if the pro-life movement loses the embryo stem cell research battle, abortion will remain legal in our lifetime, and this status may not change for generations to come.

Terry argues that the stem cell argument focusing on embryo research is now supported by the majority of Americans because they have been informed and believe that this research will cure disease, even though such research is still untested. As a result, he says the public has a highly emotional personal interest in this fight. In effect, he states the public expects and accepts embryos being destroyed in the hope that the death of the embryos will stop their own suffering or that of a loved one in the future. As a result, the public now has a vested interest in the destruction of human life.

Mr. Terry states that the press will shortly paint the pro-life movement as being against "research" and caring more about excess discarded embryos than about the well being of others. They, the middle America, according to Mr. Terry, will become permanent adversaries of the pro-life cause, believing we are hard-hearted ideologues standing in the way of progress and healing.

The contempt for pro-life in this regard has already started in Canada. A cartoon in the July 17, 2001, Ottawa Citizen depicted a grandmother in a wheel chair admiring a lovely flower labelled "embryo stem cell research" but coming up behind her is a nasty looking man labelled "pro-life" holding huge shears with the obvious intent of cutting down the flower. A scarcely subtle propaganda piece. Health Canada conducted a survey in April, 2001, and reports that 86% of Canadians now believe it is acceptable to take stem cells from donated human embryos.

Mr. Randall's conclusion is that once people have become accustomed to the destruction of the innocent human life of embryos for scientific purposes, and its "benefits" for humanity, society will have then stepped over the line and become direct heirs of the ideology earlier found in the dark crevices of Hitler's mind.

This debate over embryo stem cell research, according to Mr. Terry, may be the final desolate and sinister chapter in the abortion debate.


The full text of Mr. Randall's article on embryo stem cell research can be found in WorldNetDaily July 31, 2001 at www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.

The Canadian Situation

Minister of Health Allan Rock proposed in S.8 of his draft legislation, the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, that research may be permitted under licence, of excess embryos created during the in vitro fertilization procedure, which is the combining of or fertilization of a sperm and egg in a petri dish and then implanting the resulting fertilized embryo into the womb. However, the legislation specifies that embryos may NOT be created solely for research purposes.

REAL Women has extensively researched the issue of embryo cell research, as well as the other controversial provisions in this proposed legislation. The results of our research are included in the brief that we will be presenting to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health this fall.

The following is an excerpt from REAL Women's brief to the Health Committee on the issue of embryo stem cell research. (Copies of the complete brief are available from our Ottawa office. Unfortunately, we have to charge a $3 fee to cover the cost of copying and mailing.)

Excerpt from REAL Women's Brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health on the Proposed Assisted Human Reproduction Act

Use of Embryo Stem Cells for Research

According to the media, the issue of stem cell research comes down to a question of whether society will permit embryonic stem cell research so that the curse of illnesses such as Alzheimer, Parkinson's, diabetes and heart disease can be eliminated, or whether society will be restricted in these achievements by unscientific, emotional and religious concerns about a clump of fertilized cells known as "embryos."

Would that the issue were all that simple.

To start with, we all agree that it is critical that public policy be based on universally acknowledged and scientifically accurate facts. It is a fact that an embryo is a human being - not a potential, but an actual human being, requiring only time and nutrition in order to grow and develop. As stated by human embryologist Ronan O'Rahilly, a member of the international board of the Nomina Embryologica, the early human embryo and human fetus is an already existing whole human being immediately from fertilization or cloning on.

Scientifically, once an innocent human being comes into full existence at fertilization, or at cloning, he/she remains an existing human being, regardless of the scientific, social or political uses that other
human beings might have for him/her.

The embryo represents the transmission of human life from one generation to the next and because it is a genetically unique living entity, it should not be used for research. We do not need human victims to end human suffering. It is for this reason that our organization, REAL Women of Canada, is utterly opposed to embryonic stem cell research since, as a result of obtaining stem cells, the embryo is completely destroyed. That constitutes the death of a human being. Because the embryo is undeniably human life, we are also unilaterally opposed to research being carried out on embryos and it is irrelevant that such research is prohibited in this proposed legislation after 14 days. Any research on embryos is objectionable and unethical at any time in their development.

Intense Media Pressure in Support of Embryo Stem Cell Research

It strikes us as curious that intense pressure is now being placed on the potential of experimental use of embryo stem cells when there are already proven alternate sources of stem cells from bone marrow, umbilical cord, placenta, human fat tissue, skin and even the brain cells of deceased adults - to name just a few, which makes embryo stem research unjustified. This is especially so since these alternate sources eliminate the difficult problem of rejection of foreign material by the body caused by embryonic stem cell implantations. In contrast to the successful use of adult stem cells, human embryonic stem cells have never been used successfully in clinical trials.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversold

It seems clear that embryonic stem cells have been oversold to a public understandably eager to cure some of our most devastating diseases. Yet such research will be at the expense of full and fair acknowledgement of the many uncontroversial, ethical and successful alternatives. Moreover, the fantastic research now being carried though these alternative methods of stem cell research will likely also prove invaluable to all future therapeutic genetic research.

In view of such successes, and the moral and scientific problems with embryonic stem cell research, it is astonishing that there is still pressure to use embryo stem cells in research. This is especially so since it is an acknowledged fact that embryonic cells have unlimited ability to proliferate, which can create problems since the proliferation may cause serious tumours in the individuals in which the stem cells have been implanted.

Scientists have not developed techniques to combat the problems of this tumour formation and the immune rejection caused by embryo stem cell implantation. Until they do, embryonic stem cells have no realistic potential to be used for therapeutic purposes.

REAL Women of Canada is fully in support of the use of alternate stem cell sources and we recommend that the federal government generously fund research using these alternate sources.

"Extra" Embryos for Research

It is no argument at all that embryos will not be created for research purposes, and that only "extra" embryos will be used after the required number of embryos have been implanted following in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure. This policy serves as an open invitation for researchers to create more embryos than required for the IVF procedure. Only the required number of embryos for implantation should be created by physicians and implanted so as to avoid the problem of the use of and/or disposal of excess embryos.

In this regard, we acknowledge that it is an intrusive procedure on women to retrieve ova and that the fertilization of more embryos than necessary for the in vitro procedures avoids women having to repeat the procedure for future ova removal.

However, we recommend that if extra ova are retrieved, the latter should be frozen for future use and not combined with the sperm so that no human being (embryo) is created. This would dispense with the problem of the use/disposal of the so-called "excess" embryos.

In short, REAL Women of Canada completely agrees with the argument put forward by US President George W. Bush in his statement on embryo stem cell research on August 9, 2001 National Post, August 10, 2001:

Others will argue there is no such thing as excess life and the fact that a living being is going to die does not justify experimenting on it or exploiting it as a natural resource.

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