Action Alert, U.S. House votes May 24th on embryo-killing research, H.R. 810

National Right to Life ^ | 05.22.05

[Coleus]

NRLC Alert: U.S. House votes May 24 on embryo-killing research
U.S. House to vote Tuesday May 24 on embryo-killing research (H.R. 810)	Take Action! NJ Residents Can Take Action Here

WASHINGTON (UPDATED May 20, 2005) -- The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on Tuesday, May 24, on H.R. 810, a bill that would order federal funding of stem cell research that requires killing human embryos.  NRLC strongly opposes this bill.
 
H.R. 810, sponsored by Reps. Michael Castle (R-De.) and Diana DeGette (D-Co.), would overturn the policy adopted by President Bush in 2001.  President Bush's policy bars federal funding of research that would require killing human embryos.  President Bush opposes H.R. 810.
 
On May 11, NRLC sent a letter to House members expressing opposition to the bill, and advising them that the roll call will be included in NRLC's scorecard of key congressional votes for the current Congress.  You can read the NRLC letter here.

No amendments will be considered to H.R. 810.  The House will vote yes or no on the bill as it was introduced.  You can read the text of the bill here.

H.R. 810 currently has 201 co-sponsors.  You can view an always-current list of co-sponsors by clicking here.

Your help is needed!  Please IMMEDIATELY communicate with your representative in the U.S. House, urging him or her to support President Bush's pro-life policy by OPPOSING H.R. 810.  Urge other pro-life citizens to do the same. 

To easily send free e-mail messages to House members in opposition to H.R. 810, put your zip code into the "Take Action Now" box on this page.

Also, please call your U.S. House member through the Capitol Switchboard, 202-225-3121 (just give the switchboard operator your zip code and you will automatically be connected to the correct lawmaker's office).  Urge him or her to VOTE NO ON H.R. 810, the "Castle embryo-killing bill."
 
NOTE:  Stem cells obtained from NON-embryonic sources have provided benefits to real human patients with at least 58 different diseases and conditions (to see a partial list, click here).  One ethical source for stem cells is the blood from umbilical cords (to see some information on therapeutic applications of cord blood stem cells, click here).  On May 24, the same day that the House takes up H.R. 810, the House will also take up and pass the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act, sponsored by Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), the chairman of the House Pro-Life Caucus.  This bill will establish a new federal program to make stem cells extracted from umbilical cord blood available to patients who need them.  NRLC supports the Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act.  Pro-life House members should be urged to support "the Chris Smith cord blood bill" as an ethical alternative to the embryo-killing research promoted by H.R. 810.  (No bill number has yet been assigned to the Chris Smith cord blood bill.)
 
For further information on embryonic stem cell research, click here and here.  Or, send e-mail to Legfederal@aol.com.

NOTE: There is also likely to be a vote on this issue this year in the Senate, where the bill has been introduced by Senators Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) as S. 471. To send your two U.S. senators appropriate messages about this legislation, click here.

PLEASE KEEP N.R.L.C. INFORMED! If you obtain a response from a Member of Congress, or any other information on any lawmaker’s position on this issue (including information reported in the press), please forward it to NRLC by e-mail to Legfederal@aol.com (preferred), or by fax to (202) 347-3668, or by U.S. mail to NRLC, Federal Legislation Department, 512-10th Street Northwest, Washington, D.C. 20004-1401.

Please check this list to determine if your Representative is a cosponsor:

For current resources online see:  and this On the latter web site, note the "New Resources" section (far right column of home page), which includes an excellent letter sent by 57 scientists to Senator John Kerry last fall and new one-page fact sheets refuting current arguments.

See Bill Text:
HR 810 - Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005
HR 596 - Cord Blood Stem Cell Act of 2005

Embryo Ethics  Killing Embryos  Bush Policy  Stem Cell Research

IVF Embryos will "Just Die" anyway

NJ Action Alerts

[Coleus]

How do we get these embryos?  From In Vitro Fertilization Clinics

Actress Brooke Shields creates, kills or disposes how many of her very own Children by undergoing 7 IVF Treatments

this is what happens when the creation of children is reduced to that of  personal property rather than a gift from God, a child is a gift not an entitlement. Adoption is the loving option.

The more our culture blindly accepts killing, organ harvesting and treating other human beings as mere property, the further we slide into moral relativism, and it will be very difficult for us some day to make the argument that our own killers should respect our human dignity.

Science without the compass of ethical restraints is taking us on a path towards dehumanization in the name of progress.

The Gift of Life (Donum Vitae) 1987

Instruction on respect for human life

EVANGELIUM VITAE (The Gospel of Life)

Croatia's Catholic Bishops Warn In Vitro Fertilization is “a Serious Crime”

[Gipper08]

Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) was more circumspect about the outcome of an eventual House vote.

“I think we have a chance, but just a chance,” Pence said Thursday.

However, he said that he was convinced the bill would not be signed into law, even if that meant a Bush veto.

“We will win this fight, whether it’s on the floor or after the presidential veto,” Pence said. “We will win this fight.”



Call your(and other) congressman. They must not be allowed to override. Appeal to them on moral and fiscal grounds.

[NYer]

Your help is needed!  Please IMMEDIATELY communicate with your representative in the U.S. House, urging him or her to support President Bush's pro-life policy by OPPOSING H.R. 810.  Urge other pro-life citizens to do the same. 

Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Human embryos are human beings. "Respect for the dignity of the human being excludes all experimental manipulation or exploitation of the human embryo" (CRF 4b).

Recent scientific advances show that often medical treatments that researchers hope to develop from experimentation on embryonic stem cells can be developed by using adult stem cells instead. Adult stem cells can be obtained without doing harm to the adults from whom they come. Thus there is no valid medical argument in favor of using embryonic stem cells. And even if there were benefits to be had from such experiments, they would not justify destroying innocent embryonic humans.
CRF Pontifical Council for the Family, Charter of the Rights of the Family

Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[Sun]

It's surprising how many people think that ASC and ESC are the same thing. I'm going to write a letter to the editor in my area explaining the difference. Since MSM won't do it's job, I guess it's up to us grassroots folks.

Here's an article (excerpt) by Wesley Smith of nationalreview.com:

Here's the story, in case you missed it: A man in his mid-50s had been diagnosed with Parkinson's at age 49. The disease grew progressively, leading to tremors and rigidity in the patient's right arm. Traditional drug therapy did not help.

Stem cells were harvested from the patient's brain using a routine brain biopsy procedure. They were cultured and expanded to several million cells. About 20 percent of these matured into dopamine-secreting neurons. In March 1999, the cells were injected into the patient's brain.

Three months after the procedure, the man's motor skills had improved by 37 percent and there was an increase in dopamine production of 55.6 percent. One year after the procedure, the patient's overall Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale had improved by 83 percent — this at a time when he was not taking any other Parkinson's medication!

That is an astonishing, remarkable success, one that you would have thought would set off blazing headlines and lead stories on the nightly news. Had the treatment been achieved with embryonic stem cells, undoubtedly the newspapers would have screamed loudly enough to be heard. Unfortunately, reportage about the Parkinson's success story was strangely muted. True, the Washington Post ran an inside-the-paper story and there were some wire service reports. But the all-important New York Times — the one news outlet that drives television and cable news — did not report on it at all. Nor did a search of the Los Angeles Times website yield any stories about the experiment.

[Salvation]

Message sent -- thanks for that "Take Action" link above.

[Coleus]

***sigh***

only 149 views.

[Coleus]

The 50 Republicans who voted FOR this pro-abortion bill were: Barton (TX); Bass (NH); Biggert (IL); Boehlert (NY); Bono (CA); Bradley (NH); Brown- Waite (FL); Calvert (CA); Capito (WV); Castle (DE); Coble (NC); Cunningham (CA); Davis, Tom (VA); Dent (PA); Dreier (CA); Emerson (MO); Foley (FL); Fossella (NY); Frelinghuysen (NJ); Gerlach (PA); Gibbons (NV); Gilchrest (MD); Granger (TX); Issa (CA); Johnson, Nancy (CT); Kelly (NY); Kirk (IL): Kolbe (AZ); LaTourette (OH); Leach (IA); Mack (FL); McKeon (CA); Platts (PA); Porter (NV); Pryce (OH); Ramstad (MN); Regula (OH); Rohrabacher (CA); Schwarz (MI); Shaw (FL); Shays (CT); Simmons (CT); Sweeney (NY); Thomas, Bill (CA); Upton (MI); Walden (OR); Wilson, Heather (AZ); Young, Don (AK); Young, Bill (FL).



The 14 Pro-life Democrats who voted against H.R. 810 are: Jerry F. Costello (12th-IL); Davis, Lincoln (4th-TN); Tim Holden (17th-PA); Marcy Kaptur (9th-OH); Dale Kildee (5th-MI); Dan Lipinski (3rd-IL); Jim Marshall (3rd-GA); Mike McIntyre (7th-NC); Alan B. Mollohan (1st-WV); James Oberstar (8th-MN); Collin Peterson (7th-MN); Nick Rahall (3rd-WV); Bart Stupak (1st-MI); Gene Taylor (4th-MS).