WASHINGTON, DC (NE)

    The final guidelines for destructive human embryo research, released by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), "are immoral and illegal as well as unnecessary for medical progress," said Richard Doerflinger, Associate Director of the Pro-Life Secretariat at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

    In a recent declaration, Doerflinger stressed as immoral the fact that "for the first time in history, our federal government will promote research in which developing human beings are destroyed. The Clinton Administration has ignored the moral objections submitted by tens of thousands of Americans during the NIH's public comment period," he further said.

    The Associate Director of the Pro-Life Secretariat at the NCCB also recalled that the funding of research in which human embryos are harmed or destroyed is prohibited by federal law, making the guidelines illegal. Finally, in his declaration Doeflinger highlighted that the claim "that embryonic stem cell research is needed for new medical advances has been rebutted by numerous breakthroughs in adult stem cell research and other alternatives", an approach that overcomes the ethical and immunologic concerns associated with the use of fetal tissue.

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