Press Room

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 12, 2007

Contact: Marc Tuttle, Communications, (262) 796-1111, cell: (262) 352-0890
or Peggy Hamill, State Director, cell: (414) 416-0489

U.S. Senate Votes to Fund the Destruction of Embryonic Children
Pro-Life Wisconsin Denounces Passage of S. 5

The United States Senate passed legislation yesterday that would federally fund the destruction of human embryos for stem cell research. Senate Bill 5 (S. 5) – the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007 – would fully remove President Bush’s August 2001 federal funding restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research. The bill would require federal funding of new embryonic stem cell lines derived from the destruction of new human embryos “donated” from in vitro fertilization clinics. S. 5 passed the Senate by a vote of 63-34.

The following is Pro-Life Wisconsin State Director Peggy Hamill’s response to passage of S. 5:

“The U.S. Senate’s making the destruction of embryonic children a legislative priority is a sad reflection on our country. This dreadful bill would force American taxpayers to fund the evisceration of human embryos – babies in their earliest stages of development – for no proven medical benefit; as if such benefit could ever justify the killing of any person. Fortunately, President Bush has vowed to veto this appalling measure yet again.

“Wisconsin Senators Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold should be ashamed of themselves for voting for S. 5. Sacrificing people in the name of science has been and always will be gravely immoral. Try as they might to convince themselves otherwise, they cannot avoid this stark reality.

“The Senate also passed S. 30, the HOPE act. We support the provisions of this bill that would create a national amniotic and placental adult stem cell bank. We have ethical concerns, however, about the provision allowing the extraction of embryonic stem cells from babies who have died from the in vitro fertilization process. The IVF process is life threatening; routinely embryonic children die from IVF. Are we now going to capitalize on the deaths of these children by taking their body parts?

“The pro-life community IS pro-stem cell research. We want to see research progress toward the treatment of debilitating disease, but not by killing human lives in order to potentially save them. Ethical and effective adult stem cell research is a life-saving alternative. Congress must have the political courage to fully embrace it and ignore the deadly siren call of embryonic stem cell research.”

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