COG Stem Cell update--Georgetown University stops use of aborted fetal cell lines.

- Chiron Corporation and Japanese to meet this month!
- Children of God for Life to meet in DC on fair labeling legislation
- CMA, Pharmacists for Life and Protection of Conscience Project support legislation
- Georgetown University stops use of aborted fetal cell lines in medical research
- Single dose vaccines - help us build our database of pro-life doctors!

- Chiron Corporation and Japanese to meet this month! At long last, Chiron Corporation's vaccine division in Italy will meet with the Kitasato Institute in Tokyo Japan late this month to discuss the proposed distribution of their new untainted MMR and single dose rubella vaccine. Delays came due to the acquisition by Chiron of PowerJect, a UK pharmaceutical company. Children of God for Life has written to support the proposed business venture: www.cogforlife.org/chiron.htm We will keep you updated with our progress - which looks extremely promising, especially in light of the following...

- Children of God for Life will meet to discuss fair labeling legislation in DC For the past several months we have been working with the pro-life lobby in Washington DC to request new legislation that would disclose any product using aborted fetal or embryonic cell lines under a "fair labeling and informed consent" law. This would mean that ANY product using such cell lines would require full disclosure to the consumer, doctor and pharmacist in order to protect the right of conscience. In light of the recent disastrous NJ cloning bill (headquarters to many pharmaceutical companies) we will meet on Jan. 20th in Washington. This critical legislation could have the potential to stop many firms from pursuing illicit lines of research. It would also give a huge economic edge to those companies that offer ethical alternatives...such as Chiron! For more info on the NJ bill: http://www.cogforlife.org/njcloning.htm

- CMA, Pharmacists for Life and Protection of Conscience Project support legislation The Catholic Medical Association has thrown its weight behind this legislation along wtih Pharmacists for Life and the Protection of Conscience Project. We need every medical professional - every pro-life organization - every concerned American to join us in this most important task! This is an election year and while bills have a tendency to lag, urgent help will be needed in the coming weeks and months to push this from every person supporting our Campaign. Watch for the next special report to see how you can help. Our meeting is scheduled for Jan. 20th and we will report back to you with the results after the March for LIfe.

- Georgetown University stops use of aborted fetal cell lines in medical research Thanks to Children of God for Life's Illinois Chapter, we were alerted that aborted fetal cell lines MRC-5, WI-38, IMR-90 and HEK (human embryonic kidney) were being used at Georgetown University's Medical Research Center. Children of God for Life immediately contacted Cardinal Theodore McCarrick at the Archdiocese of Washington DC to voice our concerns. We are pleased to announce that Cardinal McCarrick has written to notify us that "the problem has been resolved." Further checking reveals that all objectionable cell lines have indeed been removed from GU's tissue culture bank inventory.

- Single dose vaccines - help us build our database of pro-life doctors! Many of you have written to let us know you had problems finding doctors willing to order single dose vaccines due to the 10 dose minimum order. While we have had a great deal of success linking pro-life doctors to patients we still are lacking in many areas of the country. Please let us know if your doctor has ordered the vaccines, if he/she is willing to help other patients, your city/state and how your doctor may be contacted.

Many thanks to all of you for your donations, letters and prayers! Look for us at the March for Life Convention Center at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Capitol Hill!

Anyone wishing to make a tax-free donation to support our efforts may do so by writing to us at: Children of God for Life 2130 Catalina Dr Clearwater, FL 33764

UPDATE

Washington Cardinal Ends Catholic University's Use of Aborted Fetal Cell Lines

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/jan/04010601.html

WASHINGTON, January 6, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A pro-life victory was realized in the last few weeks of the year when Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick wrote a pro-life group December 15 to assure them that a "problem" at a Catholic University "has been resolved." Children of God for Life Director Debra Vinnedge told LifeSiteNews.com that last fall she wrote the Cardinal asking him to stop Georgetown University - a Catholic institution - from using aborted fetal cell lines.

Children of God for Life, which concentrates on the use of aborted fetal cell lines in vaccines, discovered that Georgetown University's Medical Research Center was using was using aborted fetal cell lines MRC-5, WI-38, IMR-90 and HEK (human embryonic kidney). Vinnedge told LifeSite that GU's tissue culture bank inventory now shows that all the objectionable cell lines have been removed.

In his letter to Vinnedge, Cardinal McCarrick wrote: "I am happy to give you a report of the investigation which I was able to do of the tissue culture research being carried out at Georgetown University Medical School. I have had this matter thoroughly investigated and I am pleased to tell you that Georgetown Medical Center's Tissue Culture Bank is now well aware of the moral problems concerning use of certain cell lines and research involving tissue culture."

The Cardinal expressed his thanks to Vinnedge saying, "Thank you so much for your kindness in calling my attention to this. I am grateful to you for your vigilance in an important area of moral concern."

Vinnedge responded to the Cardinal's letter writing, "It is with deepest appreciation that I write to thank you for intervening to stop the use of aborted fetal cell lines in medical research at Georgetown University. Your actions demonstrate a profound respect for the sanctity of human life and Catholic teaching. You have set an impressive example for other Catholic and Christian research facilities and have given us great hope that one day we may indeed put an end to all such illicit and immoral practices."

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=%5CCommentary%5Carchive%5C200312%5CCOM20031217b.html

Christian Values Unwelcome at Georgetown University
By Paul M. Weyrich
CNSNews.com Commentary
December 17, 2003

Georgetown University prides itself upon being one of America's finest universities. Not only does it boast a living former president, William Clinton, as one of its alumni, its reputation for academic excellence has grown over the years.

Georgetown University President John J. DeGoia welcomes visitors to the university's webpage by noting that the school retains the Catholic and Jesuit identity that was central to its founding in 1789. Crucifixes are displayed in many classrooms and daily masses are held on campus for those students who are Catholic.

However, not all Christian principles are welcome on this Catholic campus.

Catholics represented just 55% of the student body in 2000. The university's "diversity" is perhaps better reflected in the adherence to Politically Correct norms -- not Catholic doctrine -- by many members of the administration and faculty.

Recently, two members of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property's student group were distributing fliers in the university's so-called Red Square -- a "designated free speech zone."

The fliers were registered dissent to the Supreme Court's decision on Lawrence vs. Texas that declared Texas' anti-sodomy laws to be unconstitutional. The fliers made clear TFP's intention to work "untiringly to create a moral atmosphere whereby homosexuality is rejected" and to do so "loudly and firmly, legally and peacefully, in defense of Christian morals."

The flier left no doubt that the active practice of homosexuality was a sinful activity, but it made clear that to display "true charity" toward homosexuals is to demonstrate to them the sinfulness of their lives and to encourage them to abandon "their deplorable state."

It quoted Pope John Paul II: What is not morally acceptable, however, is the legalization of homosexual acts. To show understanding towards the person who sins, towards the person who is not in the process of freeing himself from this tendency, does not at all mean to diminish the demands of the moral norm....

For that Georgetown University's Interim Vice President for Student Affairs, Todd Olson, had decided to eject the TFP student members who had been distributing the pamphlet despite the fact that it had been passed out in the so-called "free speech zone."

Catholic World News quoted Olson: "The individuals removed from campus were spreading a message that was grossly offensive, and I view the removal as entirely appropriate."

Olson also sent a campus-wide e-mail to reassure the university that there was no place on campus for Politically Incorrect speech, even when it came to reasoned criticisms of the homosexual lifestyle. "Intolerance and invective have no place at Georgetown," the e-mail said in a section addressed to the campus' homosexual community.

No doubt many members of Georgetown University's student body and faculty view this incident as a decisive rebuke to those whom they consider purveyors of intolerance.

Yet, when Francis Cardinal Arinze delivered the commencement address at Georgetown last spring many of the students and faculty demonstrated their own intolerance by walking out when he spoke in defense of the traditional family and against those forces and lifestyles that undermine it.

One professor of theology walked off the stage as Cardinal Arinze was speaking. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted a member of the history department's faculty calling the Cardinal's remarks "wildly inappropriate" for a commencement ceremony. Another faculty member, a Catholic priest no less, maintained the good Cardinal draws a paycheck to say such statements, but he claimed that they were inappropriate to say at a graduation ceremony. Students also walked out during the speech.

Jane McAuliffe, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, expressed regret that members of the students and faculty would be upset by Cardinal Arinze's remarks even though he was expressing a viewpoint fully in consonance with Catholic doctrine on the campus of an ostensibly Catholic university.

Many institutions in this country have lost touch with their original intentions, including Georgetown University.

Five decades ago, it would have been unthinkable for the incidents described above to have occurred on the campus of a Catholic educational institution such as Georgetown University.

What should Christians do? Some have chosen to take brave stands and attempt to reclaim fallen institutions. They have taken upon themselves a difficult task and deserve our support as lone voices of truth reaching out to those who most need to hear it. However, they have chosen a task against which the diversity bunch has stacked the odds, against Christians and the truths they represent.

Others have formed their own institutions. Home schooling is one example. Many Christian families have found the public and even religious schools to be wanting, and provide instruction to their own children at home.

What was once considered to be outside the mainstream is gaining more acceptance. Another new institution is Patrick Henry College, which deliberately reaches out to home-schooled students.

Nor is that the only institution formed to speak the truth. Christendom College was formed just over a quarter century ago, and its mission is to provide a quality education that respects the teachings of the Catholic Church.

My own daughter, Diana, is an alumna so I speak with firsthand knowledge. A third of Christendom's incoming students this year were home-schooled. The college received the highest classification among baccalaureate colleges in America from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Many Christians and Jews of faith, when presented with something that runs smack up against the truth, as happens so frequently on the campus of Georgetown University and other fallen institutions of higher learning, believe they must grin and bear it. Not so.

The experiences of homeschoolers, along with the existence of Patrick Henry College and Christendom College, demonstrate that we have the power to find our own solutions and make them work. We need more such efforts.

(Paul M. Weyrich is chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.)
http://www.freecongress.org/

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