Reminder: NIH Comment Period on Stem Cell Guidelines ends May 26

Call To Action

Dear Friend, Just a reminder: You have only until May 26 to submit comments on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) draft guidelines for funding stem cell research that requires destroying live human embryos. Please speak up today! Some background. As you will recall, the NIH draft guidelines implement the March 9 Executive Order of President Obama overturning the limits President Bush had placed on government funding of this destructive research. In a recently published critique of the draft guidelines, the Bishops' Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities states, "The federal government, for the first time, will spend taxpayers' money to encourage the destruction of living human beings to obtain research material." The guidelines violate the basic principle: "Innocent human beings, especially those who cannot give consent to be used in research, must never be subjected to serious risk of harm or death solely to provide possible benefits to others." The Secretariat discusses how the draft guidelines are broader than any proposed before on this matter, and conclude, "It is increasingly clear that forcing taxpayers to subsidize such unethical research lacks practical justification." Embryonic stem cells lag far behind adult and cord blood cell in benefiting patients. Embryonic stem cells are rapidly being replaced by reprogrammed ordinary adult cells called "induced pluripotent stem cells" (iPS cells). "In short, science has moved on, and the NIH is lagging behind by continuing to insist on a scientific or medical need to fund morally objectionable research." For the Secretariat's full document, see: www.nchla.org/datasource/idocuments/USCCB.NIHgl.pdf. Also Members of Congress have said they intend to move forward with legislation that goes beyond the NIH guidelines. We are inviting you to send, first, a message to your Representative and two Senators in Congress and, second, comments to the NIH. The NCHLA Grassroots Action Center will facilitate you doing this. First, in the usual way you will be able to send a message to Congress and then you will automatically be directed to a page where you can choose to send comments to NIH. In both the message to Congress and the comments to NIH, we have placed a pro-life text in the e-mail form, to which you can add your own remarks. Please act today! Click here to send your messages. Thanks! Michael Taylor Executive Director NCHLA   You have received this message because you have subscribed to a mailing list of NCHLA. If you do not wish to receive periodic emails from this source, please click below to unsubscribe.

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