"Doctor Meets Bioethicist"

(h/t Binky)

Pete Singer
Architect of Culture of Death
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Obama Has 'Misrepresented' The Science

Ten members of the President's Council On Bioethics take the President to task

...researchers have made progress on all of these methods – most strikingly in reprogramming somatic cells in order to restore them to a pluripotent condition. In the last two years, several different groups of scientists have succeeded in producing what are called induced pluripotent stem cells. Because producing them does not require the destruction of embryos, they do not raise what many regard as a grave moral difficulty. Because producing them does not require human ova, and because they are patient-specific stem cells that are less likely to be rejected by their recipients, they also have distinct scientific advantages. Indeed, on the day following President Obama’s announcement, an analysis in the New York Times noted that the embryonic stem cell research the president had touted “has been somewhat eclipsed by new advances.”

It is also worth noting here the position adopted by our predecessor body, the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, which did important work during the Clinton administration. NBAC approved stem cell research using (and, of course, destroying) embryos remaining after in vitro fertilization treatments. At the same time, however, NBAC stated that such embryo-destructive research is justifiable “only if no less morally problematic alternatives are available for advancing the research.” Such alternatives are now available, and research on them is advancing.

With respect to the progress that had been made in reconciling the needs of research and the moral concerns of many Americans, we can only judge, therefore, that the president’s action has taken a step backward, and we regret that.

In his remarks on March 9, President Obama promised to “ensure that our government never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction.” While this may seem comforting, it stands in need of clarification.

The president’s announced policy would permit federal funding of research not only on stem cell lines derived from “spare” IVF embryos but also on lines derived from created and/or cloned embryos. In the latter two cases, we would be producing embryos simply in order to use them for our purposes.

What researchers most desire, in fact, are not spare IVF embryos but cloned embryos, produced in order to study disease models. The funding decision announced by the president on March 9 will encourage such cloning. Nor should we be reassured that, at the same time, the president opposed “the use of cloning for human reproduction.” If cloned embryos are produced, they may be implanted and gestated. To prevent that, it will be necessary, as we noted in Human Cloning and Human Dignity, “to prohibit, by law, the implantation of cloned embryos for the purpose of producing children. To do so, however, the government would find itself in the unsavory position of designating a class of embryos that it would be a felony not to destroy.” We cannot believe that this would advance our society’s commitment to equal human dignity.

Yuval Levin at The Corner:

..What’s notable about this statement.... is that rather than just express disagreement with the ethical views underlying Obama’s position on embryonic stem cell research, it criticizes Obama for mischaracterizing the plain facts of the matter, which unfortunately has been his consistent practice ...

Is the President ignorant, or does he lie? There's no third option.

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"False Rhetoric"

False rhetoric such as “science must triumph over ideology” will not stand the test of time. Such counterfeit reasoning and slick cover-up of the truth will not have the last word.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted:

On Monday, March 9, President Obama signed an executive order that provides federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. This means that American taxpayers will now be paying for the killing of human beings at a very early stage in their lives (as embryos), so that scientific research can make use of them for experiments that may or may not yield positive results.

We U.S. taxpayers will now be forced to pay, whether we wish to or not, for the killing of our youngest brothers and sisters on the dubious hypothesis that their murders might, in the future, benefit others. Why did President Obama make this decision?...

....Let’s be clear about what this presidential decree is about. It is not about overcoming a prohibition against embryonic stem cell research. Tragically, such research is already legal in many places in our country. Already billions of dollars of California taxpayers are funding such heinous research. So our president is not overturning laws that prohibit such research. It is already legal.

What President Obama is doing is forcing all American taxpayers to pay for this homicidal research. He is forcing us who pay taxes to be complicit, in an involuntary yet real way, in this unethical enterprise. All of this is done so that “science can trump ideology.”

Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, said this: “President Obama’s new executive order on embryonic stem cell research is a sad victory of politics over science and ethics. This action is morally wrong because it encourages the destruction of innocent human life, treating vulnerable human beings as mere products to be harvested. It also disregards the values of millions of American taxpayers who oppose research that requires taking human life. Finally, it ignores the fact that ethically sound means for advancing stem cell science and medical treatments are readily available and in need of increased support.”....

(h/t curt jester)

Obama is so anxious to set up his Culture of Death regime, he cannot even pace himself! Callous disregard for science whilst pledging to put science before ideology;federally funding the unsuccessful embryonic stem cell research and at the same time rescinding the funding for the successful, alternative stem cell research; following an ideology himself that is self-serving and elitist, in that he places himself above other human beings that he has the power to declare unworthy; total disregard for the moral sensibilities of millions of American taxpayers and the nation's medical personnel; the appointment of possibly the MOST radical supporter of all kinds of abortion as Health and Human Services head; - this is not a Christian man, or even a man who actually believes in a Creator God!

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Letter To The President

From the Bioethics Defense Fund

Dear President Obama:


Congratulations on your historic inauguration.

We'd like to introduce ourselves. We are pro-life Americans.

You will be hearing from us so we'd like to share our motivations.

Like you, we are motivated by faith; we have faith in God in whose image we are created.

Like you, we are motivated by hope; we encourage the kind of hope that is personified by one person reaching out to another in difficult situations like crisis pregnancies, and the experience of suffering from disease.

Like you, we are motivated most of all by love.

We have a deep love for the unique and unrepeatable beauty of every unborn child targeted for abortion, and for that child's mother and father who will be deprived of their child's transforming love.

We have a deep love for the young women of our nation who live in a culture that exploits them as sex objects due to the easy availability of abortion.

We have a deep love for our friends and family who suffer from disease and who deserve medical research and treatment that does not burden their conscience with knowing that human lives were destroyed in the name of science.

We have a deep love for those at the end of life who deserve true care and concern, not the false compassion of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide.

On this historic occasion that vindicates the rights of human beings who were once considered to be property in American law, we invite you, Mr. President, to lead our nation with policies that respect the dignity and human rights of every human life, from beginning to end.

Sincerely,

(go to BDF to sign letter)

UN Petition Presented

LifeSiteNews

December 10th, two Members of the European Parliament, Anna Záborská and Carlo Casini held a press conference in the European Parliament to announce that 5.4 million families had sent a petition to the UN, calling for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) to be interpreted as protecting the unborn child and the family.

The Familiokratos coalition, established one year ago on the 10 December 2007, gathers leaders from pro-family and pro-life movements (See: http://familiokratosen.blogspot.com/). It has presented the petition to the Gabon ambassador, to the Holy See, Firmin Mboutsou, as well as to other UN ambassadors in order to be distributed among UN delegates.

The group was formed in order to remind the world of the Universal Declaration and to uphold the Declaration in all international instruments. Currently the 60th anniversary of the Declaration is being celebrated, and Familiokratos said that the recognition of the family should be recognized as the bedrock of the UDHR.

"The family is a cultural anchor universal to all cultures," Said Záborská. "The family is where we learn that the authentic role of the state is to serve its people; and not to reinvent humanity along the lines of some artificial ideology: the first and last sign of the approach of totalitarianism is the collapse of the family. Finally, we promote the family because it is the primary repository of love in our society."

The Falimiliokratos petition in favour of the dignity of life and the human family asserts that the rights presented in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are inherent to every human being. Governmental representatives, politicians, and all other decision-makers must interpret the UDHR so as to reaffirm the right to life to all members of the human family, including the unborn child. The petition also calls on governments to: protect the family "as the fundamental group unit of society," give special assistance to motherhood and childhood and promote the rights of parents. (UDHR articles 3, 16, 25 and 26).

Today,(appropriately on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe) we have the Vatican's release of their new instruction on bioethics - 'Dignitatis Personae'.

BigBlueWave has some good highlights and commentary.