Political Action » NRLC warns US House of "Bait-and-Switch"
National Right to Life Warns U.S. House
of "Bait-and-Switch" on Stem Cell Research Bill
March 31, 2009
National Right to Life, Federal Legislation Department
The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) today sent a letter to members of the U.S. House of Representatives "to warn you that there is a substantial chance that you will soon see an attempt to ram through the House of Representatives, on short notice, legislation that would authorize federal funding of research on human embryos created specifically to be used in research, and open the door to federal funding of human cloning and human embryo farms."
The letter explains that, contrary to assurances given to Members of Congress and the public in the past, anticipated forthcoming legislation dealing with stem cell research will not limit the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to the use of human embryos who are donated by their parents after being "left over" at in vitro fertilization clinics, but will also empower NIH to use human embryos created especially to be used in research, including embryos created by human cloning.
The NRLC letter explains:
A legislative “bait and switch” is in the works. We anticipate that the forthcoming “embryonic stem cell research” legislation
(1) will give NIH authority broad enough to fund research that uses not only “leftover” human embryos but also created-for-research
human embryos, including embryos created by human cloning; and (2) may be coupled with a clone-and-kill provision, which will be
labeled as a “ban on human cloning” but which will actually define “human cloning” in a manner that allows the mass creation of human
embryos by cloning, for the purpose of using them in research that will kill them. The pro-cloning side hopes to smuggle through
these radical policy changes on this authorization legislation, and then follow up by gutting or repealing the Dickey-Wicker provision
on the Health and Human Services appropriations bill for FY 2010.
The letter concludes:
Whatever legislation dealing with embryonic stem cell research and human cloning is actually brought before the House will be
accurately described in NRLC’s scorecard of key right-to-life roll calls of the 111th Congress. If, as we fear, the forthcoming
legislation allows the creation of human embryos by cloning for use in research that will kill them, and grants NIH the authority
to fund research that lethally exploits human embryos who were especially created for research, then a vote for that legislation
will be accurately described as a vote in favor of federal taxpayer support for human cloning and human embryo farms.
View or download the entire NRLC letter in PDF format.
Easily send appropriate messages to members of Congress in opposition for the forthcoming embryo-related legislation.
For further information, contact the NRLC Federal Legislation Department at Legfederal@aol.com