Stem Cell Research is on the move! However, there is a very "dark side" to that industry. Read "fetal farming" - Fetus Attraction by Robert P. George. ...if you care about the rights of defenseless human beings.
[Update! This just in from Grassfire.org
Dear Toma,
Yesterday, the Senate voted on three critical bioethics bills: Santorum-Brownback: Fetus Farming Prohibition Act of 2006 (S. 3504), Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act (S. 2754), and Taxpayer Funding of Embryonic Stem Cell Research on "spare" IVF embryos.
All three passed through the Senate. The first two bills passed 100-0.
The third, Human Embryo Experimentation bill (H.R.810) passed 63-37. While it is a big disappointment that this legislation passed, it is not a veto-proof margin, and indeed a better vote than many expected.
We expect the President to make good on his promise to veto this bill today. And we are asking team members to contact the White House today and offer encouragement to the President to use his veto pen on H.R. 810.
Here is the White House contact information:
comments line: 202-456-1111, or leave an email: comments@whitehouse.gov.
Please take action today.
Also, we have included the voting results for H.R. 810. Click below to see how your Senators voted on taxpayer funding for human embryo experimentation:
http://www.grassfire.org/21/senate_vote_hr810.htm
After reviewing the list, we encourage you to contact your Senators and let them know how you feel about the way they voted on this legislation.
Following the Senate votes, the House took up both the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act of 2006 (S. 3504), and Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act (S. 2754) under suspension of the rules.
They passed the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act, meaning it too will be heading to the Presidents desk to be signed today!
The Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Therapies Enhancement Act (S. 2754), however did not pass. Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) and Diana DeGette (D-CO) fought against the bill and successfully brought it down by a vote of 273-154 claiming that the bill would distract from embryonic stem cell research.
Toma, even though HR 810 did not go as hoped, there is much to cheer about on the bioethics debate. Grassroots support was very strong yesterday, as many Senate offices were inundated with Pro-Life phone calls. Even Sen. Sam Brownback praised your efforts!
In all, we scored a huge victory with the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act of 2006 (S. 3504), and we do expect the President to veto HR 810.
Thank you for once again answering the call on these important bills, and for standing with Grassfire in the ongoing debate to protect the sanctity and dignity of human life!
Grassfire.org Alliance
P.S: Grassfire would like to surpass 1 million "Pro-Life"
petitions before the end of the year. + + To sign the Grassfire.org "Petition For Life": http://grassfire.org/21/life.asp?PID=9349453
That's the update. And that's, overall, a really good day for bio-ethics, in my humble opinion! Praise Yahweh! Thank You, Defender Yeshua! And pat yourselves on the back, too, if you've participated - with prayers and/or actions]
There is a group of industrious corporate-types and money-hungry medical research facilities in the world who, for whatever weird-to-dark reason, want to call these tiny people "tissue" and then sell their "goods" on the open market! "Blastocysts" are PEOPLE. And they have rights, too!
This Monday and Tuesday, July 17t and 18th, 2006, our Senate is going to discuss the outcome for these little ones. Many of these scientists and elected officials have been paid off by huge pharmeceutical companies to toss reasonable ethics regarding the "proper path" for genetic research.
But not if I can help it. Not if YOU can help it!
Scientifically speaking, "stem cell research" is awesome! I love it! Just DON'T CHOP UP MY BROTHER OR SISTER IN THE PROCESS!!! Ok?
It has become increasingly clear to us that, in the place of fetal tissue, we can use non-differentiated, "pluripotent" cells derived from placental tissue and umbilical cord blood. The medical community has unanimously declared these to be potent vehicles during these beginning phases of stem cell research, whereas fetal-farmed cells DO NOT offer similar potential until very advanced stages of body's formation. (I said that. I just put it in block quotes so skeptics would read it.)
MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR THOSE LITTLE ONES - Grassfire.net (NOT .org!)
Hopped on Senator Coleman's site Thursday... wrote him a little note:
Dear Senator Coleman,
I'm simply deeply concerned that you cast your vote for the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act of 2006 (S.3504),
and against any Taxpayer Funding for Human Embryo Experimentation (H.R.810)
Hopefully you know by now that farming human babies for stem cell research is not necessary as other "easily accessible" methods exist for such valuable research and medical breakthrough.
Thank you,
Just an idea. Act now for the little ones.
- - - - - ALSO IN THE NEWS :: ISRAEL AT WAR! - - - - -
How to "pray for the Peace of Jerusalem" (Psalm 122)?
1. Pray for the safety and rescue/return of the 3 Israeli soldiers held hostage by Hamas (Gil'ad Shalit, 19 years old) and Hezbollah (Ehud Goldwasser, 31 years old; Eldad Regev, 26 years old) .
2. Hezbollah has traditionally turned to hostage taking, an old Middle Eastern strategy when the going gets tough. Pray for the safety and evacuation of 25,000 US citizens and other Westerners now in Beirut.
3. Sheikh Nasrallah declared yesterday that "we are going to an open war on Israel." Hezbollah has long-range terror capabilities. It has carried out kidnappings and torture of top CIA officials in the 1980's; Beirut suicide truck bombing in 1983 that killed 304 Americans and wounded 200; the hijacking of TWA flight 847 in Beirut; the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires (29 killed); and the 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center in the same city (95 killed). Ask God to send His angels to foil and frustrate any satanic Hezbollah terror plots around the world.
4. The Islamic world has used an oil embargo against the West in order to punish it for standing with Israel. Pray that God would give Western leaders holy courage and divine strategies on how to deal with oil warfare.
5. Protection for Israeli soldiers involved in the battle, and especially for those Messianic Jewish believers who are presently involved in the fighting. Also pray for protection for Israeli civilians from rocket attacks.
Stem Cell Research: Fetal Rights Now (vlog80)
Nate, yo, bro. I couldn't agree with you more about how wrong it is to steal life to do medicine! Amen!
ReplyDeleteHowever, I point out in my video and in my blog that it is possible to do real (already effective) stem cell research using 2 things - the cells in blood from umbilical cords and AND in the cells in the tissue of placentas, which both have special "nondifferentiated" or "pluripotent" characteristics (as opposed to blood which has developed inside "grownups")... this is what defines "stem" cells. I think I've got that biology right.
Anyways. My point being we can learn TONS about how "fearfully and wonderfully made" we are by doing this research. I don't see anything wrong with finding out how we work, so that we can grow things that make us better.
The distinction, in my opinion, is when HUMAN LIFE IS ENSLAVED AND EXECUTED for these same purposes. That's what "fetal farming" is all about. I COMPLETELY disagree with "scientists/biologists" who argue that "fetal farming" (instead of placenta farming or umbilical cord farming) is OK.
Does that help to make my point more clear?
The "Fetal Farming" issue is a red herring. No one is advocating that. You might want to get some information from some place other than Grassfire.net (you gotta wonder what they must be smoking over there with a name like that).
ReplyDeleteQuestion how can someone claim to be "pro-life" yet advocate war of aggression like the US on Iraq or Israel on Lebanon? How many real living and breathing human beings are killed in these wars?
Bill, you obviously don't read anything but liberal woofu. Put this in your bio-engineered pipe and smoke it:
ReplyDelete"Up to now, embryonic stem cell advocates have claimed that they are only interested in stem cells harvested from embryos at the blastocyst (or five-to six-day) stage. They have denied any intention of implanting embryos either in the uterus of a volunteer or in an artificial womb in order to harvest cells, tissues, or organs at more advanced stages of embryonic development or in the fetal stage.
"Advocates are well aware that most Americans, including those who are prepared to countenance the destruction of very early embryos, are not ready to approve the macabre practice of 'fetus farming.'
"However, based on the literature I have read and the evasive answers given by spokesmen for the biotechnology industry at meetings of the President's Council on Bioethics, I fear that the long-term goal is indeed to create an industry in harvesting late embryonic and fetal body parts for use in regenerative medicine and organ transplantation.
"This would explain why some advocates of embryonic stem cell research are
- not cheering -
the news about alternative sources of pluripotent stem cells. If their real goal is fetus farming, then the cells produced by alternative methods will not serve their purposes.
"Why would biomedical scientists be interested in fetus farming? Researchers know that stem cells derived from blastocyst-stage embryos are currently of no therapeutic value and may never actually be used in the treatment of diseases. (In a candid admission, South Korean cloning expert Curie Ahn recently said that developing therapies may take "three to five decades.")
"In fact, there is not a single embryonic stem cell therapy even in clinical trials. (By contrast, adult and umbilical cord stem cells are already being used in the treatment of 65 diseases.) All informed commentators know that embryonic stem cells cannot be used in therapies because of their tendency to generate dangerous tumors. However, recent studies show that the problem of tumor formation does not exist in cells taken from cows, mice, and other mammals when embryos have been implanted and extracted after several weeks or months of development (i.e. have been gestated to the late embryonic or fetal stage). This means that the real therapeutic potential lies precisely in the practice of fetus farming."
That from the article I reference in my post.
I've got a good friend (a compassionate conservative like myself) who does advanced stem cell research here in Kansas City. We talked extensively about this stuff 8 years ago. Pluripotent non-differentiated stem cells can be harvested from sources other than little people.
About the pro-life and war? You obviously haven't been looking at what the free world is up against - http://www.obsessionthemovie.com/
Peace out with THAT.