Press Room

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 4, 2005

Contact: Marc Tuttle, Communications Director or Peggy Hamill, State Director
(262) 796-1111, cell: (262) 408-0506

Governor Doyle places almighty dollar
ahead of Almighty God

Brookfield, WI -- “When Governor Doyle vetoed the Comprehensive Human Cloning Ban he was obviously following his own ‘personal’ moral priorities – or perhaps he was following his lack of clear moral priorities. Nonetheless, he was not following the moral teachings of his faith,” said Peggy Hamill, State Director of Pro-life Wisconsin. “For a Catholic Governor like Governor Doyle to place the supposed business interests of big pharmaceutical companies and high-dollar research firms over the principles of his faith is appalling. Governor Doyle ought to be ashamed.”

In October, Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan wrote a letter to Governor Doyle on behalf of Wisconsin’s Catholic Bishops urging Doyle to take a moral stand and prohibit the reprehensible practice of cloning human beings. “Now as in the past, we should affirm that human life is an intrinsic good that transcends economic factors,” wrote Archbishop Dolan.

Despite the Bishops’ exhortation, however, Governor Doyle made a public spectacle of his veto by going to the University of Wisconsin’s Biotechnology Center and inviting stem cell researcher Jamie Thompson to accompany him as he killed the bill.

“The Governor apparently takes his moral guidance from unscrupulous researchers like Jamie Thompson, rather than from his own professed spiritual leaders, the bishops of our state,” said Hamill. “To create such a public spectacle out of willful defiance of our bishops is the height of arrogance.”

The affect that the Governor’s actions will have on faithful Catholics around the state is uncertain. Many Catholic researchers in Wisconsin may find themselves compelled to participate in research that is morally wrong. In addition, this may become a signal for other Catholic politicians that hypocritical disobedience of Church teaching is publicly acceptable.

“This is scandalous,” said Hamill. “The Governor’s lack of fidelity to his faith has created a stumbling block that will cause others to fall. May God have mercy on Wisconsin.”

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