A medical director of a non-profit organization whose mission is to protect the lives and dignity of human embryos is disappointed by a recent court ruling to suspend a ban on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.
The court of appeals has put a temporary, administrative halt on Federal Judge Royce Lamberth's decision to end funding for the research while an emergency appeal from the government is considered. The Department of Justice asked that the injunction be lifted as the decision is appealed, arguing the funding freeze was causing "irreparable" harm to researchers, the federal government, and the patients hoping for cures. (See related article)
Dr. Jeffery Keenan, medical director at the National Embryo Donation Center in Tennessee, is frustrated with the three-judge panel because it disregards the Dickey-Wicker amendment, which forbids use of federal funds for research on human embryos. Observing that the ruling is politically correct but scientifically incorrect, Keenan tells OneNewsNow nearly 2,000 clinical trials have been conducted in the U.S using various types of non-embryonic stem cells compared to only one using embryonic stem cells.
Jeffrey Keenan (Nat'l. Embryo Donation Center)"So we're looking at a score of almost 2,000 to 1," he reiterates. "...In most circles [that's] game, set, and match. There's just no way that you can compare the two as far as the scientific efficacy and validity."
He argues that America must take an ethical stand in protecting human life.
"...Even if sometime in the future they thought they could develop a treatment and cures with embryonic stem cells, the United States has always been a country to take the moral high road," he offers. The country's attitude, he believes, has always been that "it may be more difficult in one or two instances to develop a treatment with non-embryonic stem cells, but we should do that because it's the right thing to do -- and because destroying embryos is not the right thing to do."
Keenan comments that because human embryos are destroyed in the process, many developed countries do not allow embryonic stem-cell research.
Contact: Bill Bumpas
Date Published: September 14, 2010
