Update: 8:39pm: Both DeWine and Voinovich voted against H.R. 810. Good for them.
On the Hill Blog, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist touts three bills that are coming up for a vote in the Senate. One of them, H.R. 810, supports funding for embryonic stem cell research. Senate bill 3504 makes it illegal to solicit or accept fetal tissue that was deliberately generate for research. Senate bill 2754 provides money for “pluripotent” stem cell lines which aren’t created from a destroyed embryo.
Senator Frist says:
That is why I believe we must modify our current policy and expand the number of stem cell lines. We can do so without changing our principles for protecting life.
If we are destroying embryos in H.R. 810 (for which I’m thankful that Rep. Tiberi voted “No”), then it is unavoidably a change in principles for those who consider that life begins at conception.
The creation of surplus embryos through IVF is in my opinion unethical to start with. If a couple is willing to go that route to conceive children they should consider implanting all embryos, either at once or over time. More ethical still would be not creating 10+ embryos with IVF in the first place. The “snowflake” embryos should be given a chance to live with somebody even if their parents abandoned them.
I understand the intent that Senator Santorum has in S.3504, but the remedy seems a little shaky. I understand the possibility of banning solicitation to create embryos for medical research, but how does the Senator intend to enforce banning “acceptance of tissue from fetuses gestated for research purposes?” A mother or scientist signs a paper that says they didn’t mean to create a fetus for research, and everything is then fine?
Of course, all of these laws are unconstitutional because they do not provide funding for execution of the 18 enumerated powers given to Congress by the Constitution, but in this book report we’ll see why the Supreme Court probably won’t say anything about it.
