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"MORAL CONCERNS" SHOULD HAVE SCUTTLED STEM-CELL BILL, PRIEST SAYS; RESCHEDULES TALK FOR SUNDAY
A Catholic bioethicist has rescheduled a Denver talk on the implications of human cloning and embryonic stem-cell research for Sunday night because of bad travel weather. The Rev. Tad Pacholczyk will speak Sunday at 7 p.m. at Bonfils Hall, on the campus of the John Paul II Center, 1300 S. Steele St. The event is free and open to the public. The speech was originally scheduled for Thursday. Pacholczyk, who is based in Philadelphia, said in an interview this week it was unfortunate that only a veto by President Bush could stop the embryonic stem-cell bill sponsored by Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver. "The gravity of the moral concerns should have been enough to sway our lawmakers to vote in a direction that would safeguard embryonic humans," Pacholczyk said. He holds a doctorate in neuroscience from Yale University and is the education director of the National Catholic Bioethics Center. The DeGette bill would have established ethical guidelines and loosened restrictions on federal funding for research into stem cells derived from embryos. Supporters say the research holds the promise of cures for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other diseases. Bush's veto was decried by Roy Speckhardt of the American Humanist Association. "We feel Bush is obstructing research that would save lives in order to further his sectarian religious position," Speckhardt said. Pacholczyk said religion is only one aspect of a wider issue: "You don't have to have any kind of religion to understand that embryonic humans are members of the species at their earliest and most vulnerable stage." Each embryo is precious because it contains the unique potential of a specific person, he said. In other words, Pacholczyk said, "If somebody got to me when I was one cell in a petrie dish, you and I wouldn't be having this conversation." Pacholczyk said embryonic research can be avoided altogether because research in adult stem cells and umbilical cords has proved successful and is already tackling diseases such as sickle cell anemia, certain leukemias and heart ailments. Speckhardt discounted the idea that mere cells deserve the same protection as fully formed humans: "It's true these cells can continue and become fully formed humans but they're just not there yet." Pacholczyk said even the promise of cures doesn't justify human exploitation "at any stage of the life continuum." "The desire to cure very serious ailments is a universally shared aspiration," Pacholczyk said. "But you can't exploit the weakest members of the human species to go after a cure. For example, if we could cure somebody's congestive heart failure by going into a prison and killing the prisoner and removing his heart, that could never be justified on ethical grounds." Copyright 2006, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
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