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Canadian Health Research Institute Delays Embryo Stem Cell Experiment Decision

by Hilary White

OTTAWA, April 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An experimental project funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to attempt to harvest embryonic stem cells from “spare” IVF embryos has stalled over ethical concerns. The only ethical concerns of interest to the CIHR, however, have nothing to do with the lives of embryonic human beings, but about informing potential “donors” of embryos as to the fate of their offspring.

CIHR officials announced today that a decision as to the fate of the $532,000 project will not be made until the end of June. The 12 member CIHR oversight committee is asking researchers for more documentation to show that the embryos will be killed “ethically” and that parents understand that their embryonic offspring will die as a result of the experiments. The committee is concerned that money or coercion is involved. 

During the Parliamentary and Senate hearings on the Canadian stem cell and embryo legislation that passed in 2004, repeated pro-life pleas for consideration of the human dignity of the embryo were ignored.

In January 2006, internationally syndicated columnist, Mark Steyn, suggested that much of the problem facing the declining West stems from placing “second things,” that is, lesser priorities, first. He wrote, that governments have placed such considerations as socialized health care and government subsidized day care, above such primary considerations as the declining birth rate and impending demographic collapse.

A spokesman for Campaign Life Coalition said that the complete acceptance of the use of embryos for research is another illustration of the habitual placement of lesser ethical concerns – such as donor consent and privacy – above more pressing matters such as the killing of human beings at the embryonic stage of their lives.

Campaign Life Coalition President, Jim Hughes, said that the disregard for the value of human life is most visible in embryo research. Hughes said, “These scientists continually ignore the fact that the use of adult (non-embryonic) stem cells are the only proven treatments that have led to success.”

See complete Campaign Life Coalition April 24 press release at:
http://www.campaignlifecoalition.com/press/

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