Press Release

Humanists Scorn Stem Cell Veto

July 19, 2006

For Immediate Release

Contact: Roy Speckhardt, (202) 238-9088 or (703) 314-7008
rspeckhardt@americanhumanist.org - www.americanhumanist.org

(Washington, DC) Today President Bush used the first veto of his presidency to limit medical research. The popular bipartisan measure to expand federally funded stem cell research passed with wide margins in both the House and the Senate and is supported by approximately 70 percent of Americans, according to polls.

“It is disheartening that President Bush is obstructing promising research that could lead to life-saving treatments,” commented Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association. “Bush is clearly seeking to impose a narrow religious ideology, to the detriment of millions suffering from debilitating or life-threatening illness, and against the wishes of the vast majority of Americans. With this veto, the President has placed greater value on small clusters of cells than on fully-formed adults.”

The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (H.R. 810) would modify rules put into place by Bush five years ago, restricting federal funding to research on only those embryonic stem cells that were in existence as of August 2001. Of the original 78 stem cell lines on the approved NIH registry, only 22 have been made available; many of those are contaminated, degraded or otherwise of questionable utility to the research community. The new rules would allow federal funding for studies on stem cell colonies or lines derived from blastocysts that are in cold storage at fertility clinics. These blastocysts were created for the purposes of in vitro fertilization but are now scheduled for destruction.

Speckhardt continued, “It is startling that the President would rather see these unused embryos discarded than to be used to advance medical research. It should be easy for the President to recognize that potentiality does not equal human life. And in this case, as these embryos will never be implanted anyway and were donated by couples specifically for the purpose of research, such potential is quite circumspect. Since these embryos would be destroyed whether or not used in stem cell research, why not use them to help find cures for ailments like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and Parkinson’s that affect millions of people?”

As stated in an AHA board resolution last year, “The American Humanist Association supports research employing embryonic stem cells and federal funding for such research commensurate with its potential to advance scientific knowledge and lead to the development of novel therapies. Further, we encourage the development of ethical guidelines for such applications through the use of reason rather than religious or political doctrine.”

AHA board member Steven Goldberg, a key crafter of the related board resolution, added “Humanists value human life, and believe that every person has inherent worth and is entitled to dignity and compassion. But Humanists do not see a moral equivalence between a cluster of unformed cells and living, breathing human beings. It is therefore our obligation to support research that could have a positive impact on the lives of millions around the world. Thus, Humanists deplore efforts to inhibit this medical research on purely religious grounds.”

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