Respecting Human Life

Statement

Respecting Human Life

Imagine a settler in the 1800s going far out into the woods alone with his rifle in search of a deer to feed his starving family. After waiting patiently for hours, he notices movement in the brush 50 yards away. It's a deer. In a flash, he takes aim and prepares to fire.

Then he hesitates because something about the deer's movement suggests that it might not be a deer, but another hunter. Alone and miles away from any settlement, the odds of seeing another human are slim to none, but not impossible. Remember, his family is starving. If you were that hunter, would you shoot?

Even when the stakes are high and the odds are long, basic respect for human life compels us not to shoot. The same is true for embryonic stem cell research.

While the argument can be made that embryonic stem cell research has the potential to create treatment options for a wide range of diseases and other debilitating medical conditions, we must also consider the moral and ethical dimensions of creating human life with the intention of destroying it.

I am a strong proponent of stem cell research, but I cannot support research on stem cells that have been derived by destroying living human embryos. This is human life that must be respected - not destroyed. Fortunately, medical breakthroughs have made that choice unnecessary. Earlier this year I co-sponsored legislation that encourages and funds research on Pluripotent Stem Cells. These are stem cells that can eventually specialize in any bodily tissue, but they cannot themselves develop into a human being. They have been scientifically proven to have the ability to grow into brain, muscle and other tissues that could be used to treat a variety of diseases - and to do so without destroying human life.

Unfortunately, Congress ignored these new developments earlier in the year when they passed legislation explicitly calling for stem cell research on living human embryos that have been created for purposes of fertility therapy. This is essentially taking human embryos intended to become babies and reducing them to a science experiment.

On top of this, Congress passed a bill last week to foster the creation of cloned human embryos for the purpose of using them in research that will ultimately kill them. H.R. 2560, falsely labeled the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2007, claims to ban human cloning. The reality, however, is that this bill actually legitimizes the creation of human clones as long as they are used for research and ultimately destroyed. The only thing this bill really bans is respect for human life. I am opposed to cloning human beings for any purpose and I believe most Oklahomans are as well.

As I said earlier, I am a strong proponent of stem cell research that recognizes certain moral and ethical boundaries. And those options are abundant as well as extremely promising. It is tragic that Congress ignored these opportunities and instead embraced policies that have questionable potential to cure disease but are certain to destroy human life.

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