NORCROSS, Ga., Feb. 23, 2015 /
Christian Newswire/ --
Georgia Right to Life (GRTL) President Dan Becker today called on Georgia state legislators to protect the most innocent of human life by supporting The Ethical Treatment of Embryos Act.
"Georgia must not permit our children to be treated like throw away lab rats in the name of research," Becker said. "The intent of the bill is to prevent the destruction of children at their embryonic stage of development."
Becker noted that the bill (HB 287) promotes cutting-edge biotechnical research; while not allowing many of the most unethical and dangerous practices that threaten pre-born children. Similar measures have been successfully adopted in other states.
Using human embryos for research always results in the death of the child," Becker added. "Also, much of the research is designed to harvest embryonic stem cells, which have not helped treat a single disease."
Adult stem cells, on the other hand, have been successfully used to treat more than 70 human illnesses. "Smart money is going to support adult stem cell research over destructive stem cell research because of its higher return on investment."
Failure to approve this bill could allow Georgia to become like the United Kingdom, which has been termed a "scientific rogue state" for approving the use of human/animal hybrids for research.
"In the UK they implant the nucleus of human cells into cow eggs. The result is an embryo that is ninety eight percent human and two percent cow. They are jokingly referred to as 'cowboys,'" Becker said.
Another example of frankenscience first occurred in 2008 at Cornell University where scientists combined "glow-in-the dark" genes from Australian jellyfish with those of a child at the embryonic stage.
"Such use of human beings is truly diabolical in that it treats human life as lab materials with the intent of destroying it in the name of research. It's the direct and implicit exploitation of one human being over another--the strong taking advantage of the weak," Becker said.
In other circumstances, the calculated destruction of another human life would be considered premeditated murder.
What HB 287 does:
• Ensures the freedom to pursue responsible and ethical research that does not violate basic human rights--especially the right to life--for our most helpless and vulnerable.
• Prevents the creation of animal/human hybrids (called "chimeras"), or the creation of human embryos for research that are ultimately killed.
• Ensures that the fundamental, God-given nature of humanity will not be distorted.
What the bill does not do:
• Does not ban the treatment of infertility thru in vitro fertilization.
• Does not make Georgia inhospitable to biomedical research.
• Does not prevent access to abortions in Georgia.
"Science is headed full steam down a potentially irreversible slippery slope that, if not checked, will create a truly nightmarish form of eugenics. Georgia is better than that. We must protect innocent human life as God intended," Becker said.
Georgia Right to Life promotes respect and effective legal protection for all innocent human life from earliest biological beginning through natural death. GRTL is one of a number of organizations that have adopted Personhood as the most effective pro-life strategy for the 21st century.
