Embryonic stem cell researcher Eva Feldman is still misleading people regarding Michigan’s laws

Laura Berman’s March 26, 2009, column in the Detroit News profiles Eva Feldman, an embryonic stem cell researcher who recently returned to Michigan. Even after the passage of Proposal 2, which legalized unregulated and unrestricted research on living human embryos, advocates of killing human embryos for research like Feldman still can’t honestly describe Michigan’s law which formerly prevented non-therapeutic research on human embryos.

"It's frustrating when people say that this research hasn't produced a cure when, until now, I haven't been able to do one experiment in my own Michigan laboratory," says Feldman.

The only experiments Feldman was restricted from doing in Michigan prior to the passage of Proposal 2 were killing human embryos for research and attempting to create cloned human embryos. Since the passage of Proposal 2, she is now allowed to kill human embryos for research. She was in no way prevented from doing experiments on embryonic stem cells.

In-utero surgery saves Michigan baby

The front page of the March 15, 2009, edition of the Grand Rapids Press featured a story on tiny yet history-making Mira Larrison. Mira Larrison is an infant whose heart was operated on while she was still in the womb.

With Mira still in her mother's womb and weighing about 2 1/2 pounds, her heart not much larger than a grape, Armstrong and other doctors at U-M's Mott Children's Hospital operated, opening a hole between the left and right sides of her heart.

When Mira went home a few weeks ago, she became a medical pioneer -- the first infant to undergo such a delicate prenatal operation in Michigan and survive long enough to leave the hospital.

Mira needs a couple more surgeries to repair her heart but if she makes it through those surgeries doctors believe she will have an “excellent prognosis.”

When Mira’s parents were told of the various problems with Mira, they were “offered three options: have an abortion, allow the baby to be born and die or undergo in-utero surgery.”

We’re glad they choose life for Mira.

University of Michigan set to kill 400 human embryos

With the passage of Proposal 2, it is now legal to experiment on and kill human embryos in Michigan. The Detroit Free Press ran an article on March 9, 2009, which describes the University of Michigan’s plans to kill about 400 human embryos to create embryonic stem cell lines.

The press release announcing the new A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute Consortium for Stem Cell Therapies also notes that they are planning on creating induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines.

In addition to deriving new embryonic stem cell lines, researchers will use recently developed techniques to convert adult skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells, known as iPS cells. These reprogrammed cells display the most scientifically valuable properties of embryonic stem cells, while enabling researchers to bypass embryos altogether.

So if iPS cells have the same properties as embryonic stem cells and don’t require the destruction of human embryos why are University of Michigan researchers so giddy about killing human embryos?

President Obama's assault on life continues

Expanding the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research
On March 9, President Barack Obama announced and signed an order to overturn President Bush's limits on the funding of embryonic stem cell lines. President Bush had previously limited federal spending on embryonic stem cell research to embryonic stem cell lines created before August of 2001. In his orders, President Obama will give the National Institutes of Health time to develop guidelines to decide which kinds of research they will fund and what restrictions there will be. It is likely that, at bare minimum, the NIH will fund research on embryonic stem cell lines created from human embryos who were originally created for in-vitro fertilization. Some scientists desire that embryonic stem cell lines created from human embryos who were created for research also receive funding.

During his announcement, President Obama took no position on the Dickey Amendment. This amendment has prevented federal funds from going toward research into the creation of human embryos and the killing of human embryos since 1996. Some members of Congress have talked openly about attempting to repeal this amendment by removing it from appropriations bills.

President Obama also said that "human cloning for reproduction" is "dangerous, profoundly wrong and has no place in our society, or any society." What President Obama didn't mention was that he signed on as a co-sponsor to S.B. 1520, the euphemistically entitled "Human Cloning Ban Act of 2005" which would have kept human cloning legal and only banned the implantation of human clones by deceptively defining "human cloning" as "implanting or attempting to implant the product of nuclear transplantation into a uterus or the functional equivalent of a uterus." Products of nuclear transplantation is a scientific term for clones.

To send comments to President Obama, please use the form at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Call the comments line: 202-456-1111

Or, write to:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500


Junking conscience protections
On March 6, President Obama's administration moved to completely rescind a rule entitled, "Ensuring That Department of Health and Human Services Funds Do Not Support Coercive or Discriminatory Policies or Practices in Violation of Federal Law." This rule was designed at the end of the Bush administration to protect the consciences of physicians and health care workers.The rule was put in place after prolife health care workers raised concerns about their conscience protections. The ethics committee of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists had issued a paper in which they called on doctors who are opposed to abortion to refer women to abortion providers, claiming that conscience protections shouldn't prevent prolife physicians from referring women to abortion providers.

Federal law has prevented discrimination against health care personnel who refuse to perform or assist in abortions but the Bush administration policy required institutions which receive federal money to certify their compliance with the laws protecting the conscience rights of health care personnel and was intended to prevent federal funds from going to hospitals and other institutions who ignore those rights.

After the publication of the document, the Federal Register will allow 30 days for citizens to comment on the proposal before making a formal decision. Comments may be submitted either electronically or by regular mail.

The proposal to rescind the rule is available online at:
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocumentDetail&o=090000648090229f

1. Electronically. You may submit electronic comments via email to
proposedrescission@hhs.gov or by visiting the link above and clicking the add comments button.


2. By regular mail. You may mail written comments (one original and two copies) to the following address only: Office of Public Health and Science, Department of Health and Human Services, Attention: Rescission Proposal Comments, Hubert H. Humphrey Building, 200 Independence Avenue, S.W., Room 716G, Washington, DC 20201

To learn more about President Obama’s assaults on human life, visit Right to Life of Michigan at www.rtl.org and check out the Prolife Action Center.

No, conscience cannot be your guide

The White House quietly announced on Friday, February 27, that President Barack Obama is starting the process of overturning protections President George W. Bush put in place to make sure medical staff and centers are not forced to do abortions. This again reveals President Obama's strong pro-abortion positions.

It is easy to send a short email message to the White House expressing your disagreement with President Obama's position. Go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/. In addition, letters to the editor of Michigan newspapers are a great way to inform the public, many wrongly believe this president is actually prolife.

Right to Life of Michigan supports the right of health care professionals and organizations who have conscientious objections to reject participation in or cooperation with the delivery and marketing of abortion. Every person should be allowed to use their conscience as a guide. Curiously, President Obama has said repeatedly he hopes those on both sides of the issue will work to reduce the number of abortions by preventing unwanted pregnancies and by offering support to women who do get pregnant and want to continue their pregnancies. Forcing medical professionals to be entangled in the business of abortion does not work toward that end.

The Office of Management and Budget announced it will be reviewing a proposal to rescind the conscience regulation. After the conscience regulation is reviewed it will be published in the Federal Register for a 30-day public comment period.