Politics
Tuesday December 18, 2001
See today's LifeSiteNews stories
CANADIAN PHYSICIANS FOR LIFE ON GOV'T APPROVAL OF EMBRYO RESEARCH
Press Release - "Government Approval To Destroy Human Embryos Unacceptable"
VANCOUVER, BC, December 18, 2001 (LSN.ca) - Canadian Physicians for Life applauds the Minister of Health for proposing legislation on new medical technologies in Canada. The restrictions planned are long overdue.
While the new law correctly rejects intentional embryo creation for experimentation, it approves of destructive experimentation on embryos originally created as the children of infertile parents. It seems ethically inconsistent that the permissibility of experimentation up to 14 days on any one embryo relies on it not having been created for that purpose. If there is something wrong with a proposed action, surely it cannot be justified by recalling that one initially meant to do something else.
Treating a human embryo in this way is a declaration that it is not a good in and of itself, but that it has actually to be destroyed to yield good, moreover that its destruction must proceed while it is healthy and viable because its continued existence is not so useful to others as its destruction.
An arbitrary 14 day age limit is proposed to restrain this philosophy from being applied to older human beings. There is no logical reason or historic precedent why this restraint should be expected to hold, even if it were built on firmer foundations. No distinct biological marker supports the creation of a 14-day limit for permitting the destruction of a unique human being. The 14-day rule is capricious and unscientific.
The Canadian scientific community has limitless fields of exploration open to it which do not require the breach of this particular bulwark of principle. Such ethical firewalls are much easier to maintain than to rebuild in a crisis, and it would seem prudent and wise to expect this new technology to provide us with unforeseeable crises.
We recommend that all research on human embryos as well as any treatment that is not for their benefit be prohibited and not simply regulated as proposed. We have clearly set out our position in April 2001, when comment was invited by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The request for public guidance with the embryo destruction issue has satisfied the etiquette of consultation, leaving the question of whether Canadian scientific restraint with human embryos will continue to reflect technical limits in preponderance to ethical ones.
Our position paper can be viewed at http://www.physiciansforlife.ca
Will Johnston, MD, President - Vancouver, BC
Back to TopSHARE THIS STORY: E-mail Print Newsvine Digg Reddit Del.icio.us Facebook
Latest Headlines
- Gov. Sarah Palin Gives Frank Speech About Abortion and Obama's Pro-Abortion Record - Video excerpt
- Canadian Pro-Life Leader Gives Last Minute Information to Federal Election Voters
- Addressing the American and Canadian Voters from Abroad
- After Two Weeks of 40 Days for Life - 114 Babies Saved from Abortion
- Boycott Successful: McDonald's Abandons Homosexual Activism
- Obama Not Natural Born Citizen? Ineligible to Run For President?
- Toronto Archbishop Decries Morgentaler Order of Canada - Sets Sunday as Day of Prayer Against Abortion
- Shock: Connecticut Supreme Court Strikes Down State Ban on Same-sex "Marriage"
- Massachusetts Bishops Vacillate on Defense of Marriage Petition Campaign
- Victoria, Australia Decriminalises Abortion: Criminalises Doctors' Consciences
- Pro-life Efforts Redouble as U.K. Embryo Bill Goes Back to House of Commons
- Mark Steyn "Not Guilty" of "Islamophobia": Human Rights Commission
- Gibbons Charged With Disobeying a Court Order
- Host Desecration Videos Back on YouTube
- Brampton Catholic High School To Host Pro-abort Liberal Leader Stephane Dion
- Exclusive Interview with "Fireproof" Co-Star Erin Bethea
- Oregon Court Orders Frozen Embryos Destroyed, Considered "Property Rights" Issue
- Canadian Archdiocese Advertising Fundraiser for Anti-Catholic Abortion/Condom Promoter
- Barbara Kay - Poland's "preemie miracle" is an embarrassing postscript to Henry Morgentaler's Order of Canada
- US Election News Highlights - October 11, 2008
- LifeSiteNews.com NewsBytes for October 11, 2008
Most Read this Week
- Massachusetts Bishops Vacillate on Defense of Marriage Petition Campaign
- Canadian Artist and Catholic Novelist Michael O'Brien on Modesty in the Culture of Shamelessness
- Amazing Stories Come out of 2008 Life Chain
- Boycott Successful: McDonald's Abandons Homosexual Activism
- Heartland Christian Church Demands Peaceful Pro-Life LifeChain Participants Leave
- Mandatory Homosexual Indoctrination in Grade School Survives after Supreme Court Turns Down Case
- The Silver Lining of an Obama Victory
- The Palin-Biden Debate and Where Things Stand Now
- Harper Would Have to Personally Kill an Unborn Baby to Avoid the Hidden Agenda Charge
- After Two Weeks of 40 Days for Life - 114 Babies Saved from Abortion
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.