Catholic group backs stem-cell ba lot issue

A group of St. Louis area Catholics led by former U.S. senator Tom Eagleton has challenged church leaders by forming Catholics for Amendment 2.

In a two-page letter sent by e-mail last week to fellow Catholics, the group laid out its reasons for supporting the ba lot measure that would protect stem-cell research in Missouri.

Passage would ensure that research could go forward and treatments would be available in Missouri. It would keep Missouri on par with other states by allowing any research and treatment permitted under federal law. And it is moderate in its approach, the letter said.

“Some people want to ban all stem cell research,” the letter said. “At the other extreme there are those who would like to see research proceed completely unfettered. We believe that Amendment 2 strikes a responsible balance … (with) clear ethical boundaries and safety guidelines.”

The letter was signed by the group’s 30-member steering committee, made up mostly of people connected to Washington University and various medical institutions, and including Eagleton, a Democrat, and former state senator Anita Yeckel, a Republican.

The letter is a direct challenge to Missouri’s Catholic bishops, who also sent letters last week to parishioners. Those letters urged the faithful to vote against Amendment 2.

Bishop Robert Finn of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese wrote that the initiative would enshrine in the state constitution the right to clone human beings through the same process that created Dolly the sheep in 1996. The letter included a brochure that says Amendment 2 would divert money from college loans and health care for the poor. No governor, judge or other officials could impose any regulation or limit on the research, the letter says.

“This extreme protection of one industry, for something that is inherently and gravely immoral, is unprecedented in any state,” Finn wrote.

Catholics for Amendment 2 wrote that it felt a moral obligation to respond to what it called misinformation, scare tactics and distortions being spread by opponents of the initiative.

Virginia Weldon, a retired professor of pediatrics at Washington University and co-chairwoman of the group’s steering committee along with Eagleton, said wedge issues like the stem-cell debate lead many participants to take extreme positions.

Church leaders, for example, consider laboratory techniques for cloning cells to be “human cloning,” Weldon said. But Amendment 2 actually makes it a felony to try to initiate a pregnancy by implanting cloned human cells into a woman’s uterus. Missouri would be the only state with a law against human cloning, she said.

Finn’s letter says Amendment 2 would allow cloned embryos created in the lab to be killed so that stem cells could be harvested. Frozen embryos fertilized in a lab dish could also be destroyed for their stem cells, his letter says.

Researchers already obtain stem cells from fertilized eggs left over from fertility treatments. But Amendment 2 would make it a felony to fertilize human eggs just for research purposes. No law prohibits that procedure now.

Weldon quoted the recent book by former U.S. senator Jack Danforth. He wrote that no one can convince him that a fertilized egg left over from fertility treatments that will never be implanted in a womb had the same moral value as his brother Don, who died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Larry Weber, executive director of the Missouri Catholic Conference, said the church opposes the destruction of fertilized eggs left over from fertility treatments, whether for stem-cell research or by disposal. That is why the church also opposes the use of in vitro fertilization.

“It is not right to take a human life just because it was brought into being by an immoral method,” Weber said.

The letter from Catholics for Amendment 2 said religion often has stood in the way of science. For centuries, churches opposed using cadavers for research. In the late 18th century, some churches opposed the new smallpox vaccine because it would be a sin to save a child who was ordained to die of smallpox, the letter said.

“Imagine how many lives would have been lost if such views had prevailed,” it says.

Weldon said her group respects the Catholic Church’s concerns and had considered them. In the end, however, she looked to the Bible for instruction.

“Jesus was a Jew, yet he healed people on the Sabbath. He broke the rules of his church,” Weldon said. “I truly believe that, if he were asked about these embryos that were being discarded, but could help someone, he would come down on the side of healing. He was the ultimate healer.”

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