'Cost too high' for embryonic stem-cell research, Senate panel told

Published: 2004-09-30

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In testimony before a Senate subcommittee Sept. 29, an official of the U.S. bishops' pro-life office said "ethical errors" and "dwindling hopes of medical benefit" mitigate against public funding of embryonic stem-cell research. "Congress should take stock now and realize that the promise of this approach is too speculative, and the cost too high," said Richard M. Doerflinger, deputy director of the bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, in testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation's subcommittee on science, technology and space. "That cost includes the early human lives destroyed now and in the future, the required exploitation of women for their eggs and perhaps for their wombs, and the diversion of finite public resources away from research avenues that offer real reasons for hope for patients with terrible diseases," he added. "Let's agree to support avenues to medical progress that we can all live with." Doerflinger was one of five witnesses at the subcommittee's hearing on "Embryonic Stem-Cell Research: Exploring the Controversy."

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