Cole Opposes Bill to Fund Destruction of Human Embryos

Press Release

Cole Opposes Bill to Fund Destruction of Human Embryos

U.S. Congressman Tom Cole (OK-4) today strongly opposed S. 5, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007. This bill expands the number of embryonic stem cell lines that are eligible for federally funded research, and has already been issued a veto threat from the President if it crosses his desk.

"I am a strong proponent of stem cell research, but I cannot support research that destroys living human embryos in order to obtain stem cells," Congressman Cole said. "This is human life that must be respected-not destroyed."

The vote comes a day after the Associated Press and Wall Street Journal reported major advances in ethical stem cell research that would produce stem cells without destroying a human embryo. Earlier this year Cole co-sponsored legislation that encourages and funds research on Pluripotent Stem Cells that can eventually specialize in any bodily tissue, but cannot develop into a human being.

Yesterday the House passed similar legislation to foster the creation of cloned human embryos for the purpose of using them in research that will kill them. H.R. 2560, falsely labeled the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2007, claims to ban human cloning. In reality, the bill legitimizes creating and cloning any number of human embryos for use in research that will kill them, but makes it unlawful to attempt to allow such a human clone to live by implanting him or her in a womb.

"This bill doesn't ban human cloning. Instead, it makes it legal to create and clone human embryos and then use them for research that would kill them," Cole said.

"The hope of finding cures for life-threatening diseases is exciting, but the research should be done in a manner that recognizes certain moral and ethical boundaries," Cole continued. "And those options are abundant as well as extremely promising. It is tragic that in their zeal to promote a politically motivated agenda that the Congress ignored these opportunities and instead embraced policies that have questionable potential to cure disease but are certain to destroy human life."

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