So claims the Family Research Council in a press release today:
Washington D.C. - Today, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins
responded to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines
implementing President Obama's executive order for federal funding of
human embryonic stem cell research (ESCR). President Obama's order and
the NIH
guidelines remove life-protecting limits on federal funding of
embryonic stem cell research.
"Embryonic
stem cell research requires
dissecting and commoditizing the youngest, most vulnerable humans, said
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. "The new guidelines
demanded
by the President promote poor science, reflect bad health care policy,
and do nothing to fund treatments with adult stem cells that are
providing
documented benefits for suffering patients. The guidelines implement a
plan that will force taxpayers to foot the bill for research that
involves
human destruction, not healing.
"The NIH guidelines create an
incentive to create and destroy so-called 'excess' embryos, pasting a
veneer
of 'ethics' on unethical experiments. They remove limits on taxpayer
funding
of experiments that require embryo destruction, and open the
door to
future abuses. NIH clearly believes the President's order allows them
to fund other forms of unethical research at any point in the future.
"The
guidelines purport to have tight informed consent requirements, but
don't even require the IVF doctor and the stem cell researcher to be
separate persons, opening a gaping loophole for researchers to increase
embryo production for their own purposes," added Perkins.
"Acting
NIH
director Raynard Kington apparently noted that 30,000 of the 49,000
comments received were against any federal funding of human embryonic
stem
cell research, but these comments were ignored."
"Instead
of funding more
life-destroying experiments, federal funding should go toward
life-saving treatments and clinical trials using adult stem cells,
which are on the
cutting edge of treating patients for diabetes, spinal cord injury,
heart disease, multiple sclerosis, and other diseases," concluded
Perkins.