Monday, August 27, 2012

Court OKs Obama Killing Embryos with Tax Dollars

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the dismissal of a challenge to President Obama's adamant directive to his National Institutes of Health to use human embryos for research. The challengers claimed the president violated the 1996 Dickey-Wicker law prohibiting use of tax dollars to destroy human life.

President Obama supporters say IVF fertility clinics simply provide researchers with unwanted human embryos already designated for destruction.

For background, read Obama Wins Ruling: Embryos will be Destroyed and also read Stem Cell Science Advances Without Embryos as well as Actor Recants Embryonic Stem Cells for Parkinson's Cure

-- From "Federal Stem-Cell Funding Upheld by Court" by The Associated Press 8/24/12

"Dickey-Wicker permits federal funding of research projects that utilize already-derived ESCs—which are not themselves embryos—because no 'human embryo or embryos are destroyed' in such projects," Chief Judge David B. Sentelle said in the ruling, adding that the plaintiffs made the same argument the last the time the court reviewed the issue. "Therefore, unless they have established some 'extraordinary circumstance,' the law of the case is established and we will not revisit the issue."

The lawsuit was filed in 2009 by two scientists who argued that President Barack Obama's expansion jeopardized their ability to win government funding for research using adult stem cells—ones that have already matured to create specific types of tissues—because it will mean extra competition.

President George W. Bush also permitted stem-cell research, but limited the availability of taxpayer funds to embryonic stem-cell lines that were already in existence and "where the life and death decision has already been made."

Mr. Obama's order removed that limitation, allowing projects that involve stem cells from already destroyed embryos or embryos to be destroyed in the future. To qualify, parents who donate the original embryo must be told of other options, such as donating to another infertile woman.

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Court Upholds Obama's Embryonic Stem Cell Research Funding" by Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor 8/25/12

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden . . . said the law's clear intent had been utterly ignored. "Congress designed that law so that Americans don't pay any more precious taxpayer dollars for needless research made irrelevant by adult stem cell and other research. In the current economic climate, it makes even less sense for the Obama administration to use taxpayer money for this illegal and unethical purpose."

In August 2010, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that the executive order likely violated the Dickey-Wicker law. But in April 2011, a federal appeals court ruled Obama can use taxpayers' money to fund embryonic stem cell research.

Human embryonic stem cell research, with the present state of technology, involves the creation of a human embryonic stem cell line, which requires the destruction of a human embryo, and raises concerns over the rights and status of the embryo as an early-aged human life

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

From "Court: Obama Can Force Taxpayer-Funded Embryonic Stem Cell Research" by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com 8/24/12

Dr. David Prentice, Family Research Council’s Senior Fellow for Life Sciences, made the following comments to LifeNews concerning today’s ruling:
“We are disappointed that the Appeals Court panel did not agree that the Obama administration is violating the 1996 Dickey-Wicker amendment by providing taxpayer funding for human embryonic stem cell research. Embryonic stem cell research relies on the destruction of young human embryos, and that destruction is integral to the research.”

“There would be no embryonic stem cells available for federal funding without first harming and destroying a young human embryo, an act that is prohibited by the Dickey-Wicker language which is passed annually. A plain reading of Dickey-Wicker would eliminate all taxpayer funds for embryonic stem cell research. Federal funding of embryonic stem cell research is a tragic waste of lives as well as taxpayer money, since despite the promises made to gain the federal funding, there is not a single example of a successful treatment. Only adult stem cells have successfully treated any patient, now helping thousands of people for dozens of conditions.”
Sam Casey, General Counsel of Advocates International’s Law of Life Project, a public interest legal project involved in the case, pointed out that NIH officials have admitted they violated the public comment process by ignoring the majority of comments coming from pro-life advocates opposed to destroying unborn children for their stem cells.

“The majority of the almost 50,000 comments that the NIH received were opposed to funding this research, and by its own admission, NIH totally ignored these comments,” he said. “The so-called spare human embryos being stored in IVF clinics around the United States are not ‘in excess of need,’ as the NIH in its guidelines callously assert. They are human beings in need of biological or adoptive parents.”

To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.

Also read Obama Administration OKs Aborted Baby Brain Experiments