www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall For NJ Citizens: State-Funded Stem Cell Research Institute

Christ is Risen! Christos Voskrese! Christos Anesti!

New Jersey Governor James McGreevey, in his infinite wisdom, yesterday unveiled his plans to create a state-funded stem cell research center in New Brunswick. For the full story, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/13/nyregion/13stem.html

It is apparently not sufficient that our state government, largely for the sake of profit and prestige, has chosen to endorse the culture of death. We are now being asked to fund it.

I would ask those on the Byzantine Forum who are citizens of New Jersey and who oppose embryonic stem cell research to write their state senators and assemblymen and ask them to vote against any bill that would direct public funds to this institute.

My wife and I have written the following letter to our representatives in Trenton:

We are writing today regarding New Jersey Governor James McGreevey's decision to create a state-funded stem cell research institute. The research conducted at the proposed institute, to be jointly managed by Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, will include the development and use of stem cells extracted from human embryos.

Our understanding is that the Governor will ask the State Legislature to approve the allocation of $6.5 million in state funds to support this endeavor. We respectfully request, for the reasons described below, that you vote against such a measure and that you encourage your colleagues in the Senate to do so as well.

The principal reason we oppose research using embryonic stem cells is that the embryos to be harvested for their pluripotent stem cells � and consequently destroyed � are distinct, genetically complete, living members of the human family.

That this biological fact has been largely overlooked by those seeking to profit from embryonic stem cell research and even by those with considerably more noble motives, such as alleviating terrible human suffering, should come as no surprise. But, regardless of how stridently these individuals may tout the (as yet scientifically unsubstantiated) benefits of such research, the burden remains on them to explain why a human embryo is not a member of homo sapiens sapiens. Or, at the very least, they must say why he or she is not entitled to the same protections that his or her more mature brothers and sisters enjoy.

Scientists, ethicists, and public officials have been understandably unwilling to challenge the notion that human life begins once syngamy � the fusion of the pronuclei of the sperm with the oocyte � has been completed. Fertilization continues to represent, in all the standard embryological texts, the definitive starting-point (the ontogenetic zero-point) of a new and distinct human organism.

Because it has thus far proved impossible to prove, scientifically, that human life does not begin at the conclusion of syngamy, attempts to justify embryonic stem cell research have instead focused on the idea that not every human life constitutes a human person, and that only persons enjoy a "right" to life. Yet experience tells us that, once we start placing arbitrary conditions on what constitutes a person � white skin, for example, or a functioning brain stem � we enter rather dangerous territory. More often than not, the dominant characteristics of the most powerful will be the very characteristics that �define� human personhood.

Until it is scientifically proven that the embryo is not a human person, embryonic stem cell research can only be viewed as violating the fundamental moral norm that one ought never treat another human being as a means to an end � no matter how good or useful that end may be.

Ending human suffering is a responsibility we all share. It is no doubt a praiseworthy goal. But it is a goal that cannot be pursued by any means necessary, and certainly not where the chosen means involve dubious judgments about the comparative worth of human lives.

We were disappointed that the State of New Jersey decided in January 2004 to authorize embryonic stem cell research. We are now frankly appalled that Governor McGreevey would be willing to ask us and other citizens to fund an institute dedicated primarily to this morally-objectionable purpose.

We ask that you vote against any bill which provides public money for the proposed stem cell research institute. We also ask that you acknowledge this letter in writing and inform us of your anticipated vote on this matter.

Thank you for your kind attention to this letter.

To find the name of your state senator and assemblymen, click here:
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp

In the Risen Christ,
Theophilos

The current issue of Newsweek has a listing of many states that are moving in similar directions. The business interests behind this are enormous - in particular in NJ and CA. How to get some foresight here and and a sincere effort to anticpate and avoid unitended consequences?

Dear Theophilus: Are you finished?

Dear Theophilos,

It is all so very sad. I say do your best to register your abhorrance via letter and vote, but be prepared to let NJ and CA go with the Prince of this world. Our USA is so very polarized.

My recommendation is to move to the God-protected Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I was born here and can get you in really easily . We need more like you.

With sympathy in Christ,
Andrew, securely in "The Keystone State."