Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / Church urges 'no' vote on embryo-destructive research
Church urges 'no' vote on embryo-destructive research
by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published August 29, 2008
Detroit — Michigan's Board of State Canvassers approved a ballot proposal for November's election that, if passed, would prohibit restrictions to research that would destroy living human embryos.
The Church, for the cause of protecting human life at its earliest and most vulnerable stages, will urge a "no" vote on the proposed amendment, which will be Proposal 2.
Michigan's bishops, who speak on public policy through the Lansing-based Michigan Catholic Conference, have thrown their support behind a grassroots coalition named MiCause (Michigan Citizens Against Unrestricted Scientific Experimentation) in order to help defeat the proposed amendment.
MiCause cautions that promoters of the amendment are being dishonest about what it actually will do to state law — eliminate any restrictions on experimenting on embryos, and open the door to human cloning.
Proponents of the measure claim that research that destroys embryos holds promise for future cures or treatments for serious diseases such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's.
The Church, however, has tried to educate its faithful on the lesser-known truths about embryonic stem-cell research:
• Decades of embryonic stem-cell research — which kills a living human being in his or her earliest stages of development — has failed to produce cures or treatments for such diseases.
• Adult stem cell research, which does not destroy human life and which has resulted in about 70 treatments of various diseases, is encouraged by the Church.
Last year, the Michigan Catholic Conference distributed a DVD statewide describing the science behind the two types of stem-cell research, and explaining why embryonic stem cell research poses an assault on human life and the dignity befitting of it.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church also states: "Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being" (2274).
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