Contact:
Susan Armacost, Legislative Director
Forcing Taxpayers to Fund the Destruction of Human Life
for Research is the Moral Equivalent
of Forcing Taxpayers to Fund Abortion
Yesterday, a number of organizations connected with the biotech industry announced the “results” of a poll they had commissioned that they claim shows that “Wisconsin voters overwhelmingly support embryonic stem cell research.” The poll is part of an effort by the Wisconsin biotech industry to drum up support for taxpayer funded research that would involve the destruction of human embryo.
“Based on the news release released yesterday, it appears likely that incorrect and biased information was ‘fed’ to the respondents as part of the questions,” said Susan Armacost, Legislative Director for Wisconsin Right to Life.
Armacost cited the description in the news release regarding how human embryonic stem cells are derived. The release says, “Human embryonic stem cells are derived from donated embryos, or blastocysts, less than a week old. These embryos are donated by parents who have gone through the process of in vitro fertilization and have surplus embryos that they will not be using to try and have more children.”
“If this is what was told to the respondents, those respondents were misled regarding just how far Wisconsin’s biotech industry is willing to go to have a ready source of stem cells.” said Armacost. “The news release completely ignored the fact that in order to obtain stem cells from human embryos, the embryos must be killed. But even worse, the biotech industry in Wisconsin has every intention of moving toward the actual creation of human life for the express purpose of destroying those human lives in order to obtain stem cells.”
“The Wisconsin biotech industry was out in force two years ago to testify against legislation that would ban human cloning in Wisconsin. It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that the cloning of human embryos in order to destroy them later in medical experiments is next on their agenda.”
Armacost also pointed out that the news release stated, “The poll found 68 percent of voters support the idea that research on embryonic stem cells offers more potential to provide lifelong treatments for more types of diseases than research on adult stem cells. Burton added that 43 percent strongly support this idea.”
“Again, there was blatant bias and incorrect information provided to the respondents,” said Armacost. “One only has to compare embryonic and adult stem cell research to know that.”
EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH TREATMENTS = 0
None. No known cures or successful human therapies
ADULT STEM CELL RESEARCH TREATMENTS = 56
56 known successful human therapies
1. Brain Cancer
2. Retinoblastoma
3. Ovarian Cancer
4. Merkel Cell Cancer
5. Testicular Cancer
6. Lymphoma
7. Acute Lymphobolastic Leukemia
8. Acute Myelogenous Leukemia
9. Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia
10. Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia
11. Angioimmunoblastic Lymphadenopathy with Dysproteinemia
12. Multiple Myeloma
13. Myelodysplasia
14. Breast Cancer
15. Neuroblastoma
16. Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
17. Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
18. Renal Cell Carcinoma
19. Various Solid Tumors
20. Soft Tissue Sarcoma
21. Scleromyxedema
22. Multiple Sclerosis
23. Crohn’s Disease
24. Rheumatoid Arthritis
25. Juvenile Arthritis
26. Systemic Lupus
27. Polychondritis
28. Systemic Vasculitis
29. Sjogren’s Syndrome
30. Behcet’s Disease
31. Myasthenia
32. Red Cell Aplasia
33. Autoimmune Cytopenia
34. X-Linked Lymphoproliferative Syndrome
35. X-Linked Hyperimmunoglobuline-M Syndrome
36. Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome-X1
37. Sickle Cell Anemia
38. Sideroblastic Anemia
39. Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia
40. Aplastic Anemia
41. Amegakaryocytic Thrombocytopenia
42. Chronic Epstein-Barr Infection
43. Fanconi’s Anemia
44. Diamond Blackfan Anemia
45. Thalassemia
46. Stroke
47. Osteogenesis Imperfecta
48. Sandhoff Disease
49. Corneal Regeneration
50. Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis
51. Primary Amyloidosis
52. Limb Gangrene
53. Surface Wound Healing
54. Heart Damage
55. Parkinson’s Disease
56. Spinal Cord Injury
“The fact is, embryonic stem cells have not been used to treat one single person,” said Armacost. “There have been no human trials because embryonic stem cells grow uncontrollably and would create tumors if put into a human person. Why is Wisconsin’s biotech industry promoting unproven, unethical embryonic stem cell research when adult stem cells have been proven to be successful and do not involve the destruction of human life?”
“It is horrible enough that the biotech industry and their supporters want to engage in such
ghoulish experiments at all,” said Armacost. “But they want to force taxpayers to pay for it! Given Governor Doyle’s budget dealing with this issue, Wisconsin Right to Life is currently working with legislative leaders in efforts to prevent the use of taxpayer dollars, the use of public buildings and the involvement of public employees in research involving the destruction of human life.”
For more information on the work of Wisconsin Right to Life to stop taxpayer funding of research that involves the destruction of human life, visit the organization’s website at www.wrtl.org and click on “Much More Than an Embryo.”
