Editorial

A committee hearing last week in Tallahassee on a bill to provide taxpayer funds for embryonic stem cell research will fuel a growing debate in our state concerning the ethical implications of these scientific endeavors and what role the state should play in fostering such research. This is a debate in which pro-life citizens should be participating to ensure morally wise public policy is made in the Sunshine State.

Sponsored by Rep. Franklin Sands, D-Weston, HB 233 would “foster medically ethical embryonic as well as adult cell research,” putting $150 million over 10 years into the highly suspect research, which some scientists believe will cure diabetes, heart disease, and Parkinson’s disease, as well as serious injuries, like those to the spinal cord causing paralysis. In spite of media hype, the research has not resulted in any cures.

Advocates for embryonic stem cell research – which results in the destruction of a human embryo to harvest its stem cells – testified Jan. 25 before the House Health Care Regulation Committee, offering heart-rending accounts of children suffering from debilitating diseases.

“Florida needs to join the 21st century,” Gary Susser of Boca Raton, the father of a brain-damaged five-year-old son, told the committee, while holding the boy. “Make us a player in biotech research.… We beseech you on behalf of these children, to bring stem cell research to this state,” reported the Orlando Sentinel. Two other families told similar stories.

Florida Baptists were well represented at the hearing by Bill Bunkley, the legislative consultant for the Florida Baptist Convention.

“We do object to the notion that pursuing cures for some ever justifies intentionally destroying other human lives to achieve those cures,” Bunkley told the committee, referencing a statement on human stem cell research issued by the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s Research Institute.

The ERLC statement notes the ethical implications of embryonic stem cell research, while also supporting research using adult stem cells (from various parts of the human body, as well as placentas and umbilical cords), which do not result in the destruction of human life.

According to the ERLC, unlike embryonic efforts, adult stem cell research has actually some success in the treatment of diseases. “Embryonic researchers cannot report such findings even in laboratory animals. … Only the most committed ideologue would continue to encourage embryo-destructive research in the face of these facts,” the ERLC statement contends.

In addition to the ethical quandaries created by embryonic stem cell research, legislators should be asking why the state should fund what is essentially corporate welfare for an industry which hopes to profit greatly from such research. It is not fiscally responsible for the government to underwrite an endeavor which has not just cures as an end, but the enrichment of the biotechnology industry.

The reason the committee hearing last week is so important is because of its implications for efforts that are well underway to create a biotech research cluster in South Florida. The State of Florida lured biotech leader Scripps Research Institute to Palm Beach County and negotiations are ongoing to bring the Burnham Institute to Port St. Lucie. Scripps is currently doing research using adult stem cells, but is open to pursuing embryonic research, and Burnham, based in LaJolla, Calf., is among the most prominent advocates of embryonic stem cell research. Clearly, the debate about embryonic stem cell research is just beginning in Florida.

After it became clear the House committee would narrowly (6-5) reject the bill, Rep. Sands pulled the bill, leaving open the possibility that the matter could be revisited. “Today, religion and politics trumped science,” Rep. Sands told the Palm Beach Post following the hearing.

The pressure to advance this type of legislation will only increase, even in the conservative-dominated Florida House of Representatives. Rep. Ed Homan, R-Temple Terrace, who is a surgeon, is indicative of the growing acceptance for embryonic stem cell research. “You might think of this as destroying lives. It’s saving lives. We’re transplanting a gift of life from one person to another one that we can save,” Homan said, according to the Post.

Legislators would be wise to take heed to the counsel of my father, who taught me it’s never right to do wrong to do right. In other words, certain noble ends – curing debilitating diseases – do not justify unethical means – the destruction of one human life to benefit another human life.

“The most important question in this debate is whether we ought to engage in cellular manipulation that results in the destruction of our youngest human beings,” notes the ERLC statement. “Neither the scientific community nor the biotechnology industry should decide this question. We all have a stake in this matter since it threatens to redefine our understanding of what it means to be human and undermines the respect we owe to individual human lives, born and unborn.”

The ERLC statement rightfully concludes, “Human embryonic stem cell research represents a barbaric assault on the dignity of humankind and, therefore, erodes one of the fundamental values that have shaped our civilization.”