Contact: Sarah Rode, Concerned Women for America, 202-488-7000 ext. 127
WASHINGTON, April 10 /Christian Newswire/ -- Concerned Women for America urges the U.S. Senate to reject the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (S.5), which would force Americans to pay for unethical embryonic stem cell research. The Senate will begin debate today on this bill despite President Bush's promise to veto it.
Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America (CWA), said, "This over-hyped research would drag money and attention away from what patients really need – ethical treatments that work – for one main purpose: to force Americans to be complicit in destroying moral boundaries that protect humans from being abused for experiments. Scientists slyly admit, after proponents have whipped the issue into a frenzy, that embryonic stem cell research will not live up to its rapturous claims such as treating Alzheimer's.
"Some scientists consider embryonic stem cells more important than adult stem cells because they are more versatile – which also means embryonic stem cells become tumors whereas adult stem cells do not. The 'promise' of embryonic stem cells pales in comparison to the proven results – not mere promise – of adult stem cells which are successfully treating patients of over 70 different diseases.
"This debate will go down in history as a cynical manipulation of patients for political and financial gain, and to chip away ethical boundaries universally accepted since the Nuremberg Code to protect humans who are subjects in experiments.
"Politicians who vote for this bill insist that all Americans must be complicit in this unethical research even though superior alternatives — which are ethical and effective —are already treating patients. Since ethical alternatives exist, this bill is about playing politics, not helping patients.
"Despite millions of dollars in private funding and thirty years of experiments in animals – the first step before attempting in humans – embryonic stem cells have proven too dangerous to use in people because they produce deadly tumors. Adult stem cells have successfully treated at least 70 different diseases without causing tumors in patients. Once again, the moral approach produces the healthiest and most successful results."
Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.
