USCCB decries human/animal chimera research; faithful urged to comment
September 05, 2016
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has decried a proposal by the National Institutes of Health to fund human/animal chimera research.
“The bottom line is that the Federal government will begin expending taxpayer dollars on the creation and manipulation of new beings whose very existence blurs the line between humanity and animals such as mice and rats,” the USCCB’s general counsel and associate general counsel said in a September 2 letter. “In doing so, the government is ignoring the fact that federally funded research of this kind is prohibited by Federal statute and is also grossly unethical.”
They added that such research
relies on the destruction of human embryos; it contemplates producing entities with partly or wholly human brains (without any additional level of scrutiny in the case of rodents); and it allows for producing living entities who have human gametes (though researchers will be told to take precautions so these entities do not engage in 'breeding').
Human Life Action, which works closely with the bishops’ conference on legislative matters, urged concerned citizens to submit comments to the National Institutes of Health by the September 6 deadline for public comment.
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Further information:
- USCCB General Counsel Urges NIH not to Fund Unethical Human/Animal Chimera Research (USCCB)
- NIH PROPOSES TAXPAYER-FUNDED RESEARCH ON ANIMAL-HUMAN CHIMERAS (HLA)
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Posted by: pvanderl7463 -
Sep. 08, 2016 10:16 AM ET USA
There was a Human Chimera Prohibition Act introduced into the US Congress in 2005 which was defeated. Human chimera research attacks the dignity of man. Where has the USCCB been since 2005? Who asked the question where the body parts of aborted babies were being used for government research? Whose heads are in the sand? Most U.S. Catholics......And they will determine the future survival/direction of the U.S. at the ballot box--Catholics alone as a conscience. But they have a dim one.
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Posted by: unum -
Sep. 06, 2016 10:53 AM ET USA
When unethical and probably illegal NIH research is being proposed, you can be certain that we have lost control of our government. It is no longer "We the People", rather it is "We the Bureaucrats and Special Interests". I fear the "American Dream" has become a nightmare!
