In Theory:

The nation’s Catholic bishops followed through on their desire to put forward an initial statement opposing embryonic stem cell research. They voted almost unanimously — 191 to 1 — to approve the statement at their annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. The seven-page policy statement from the Committee on Pro-Life Activities calls embryonic stem cell research “a gravely immoral act” that crosses a “fundamental moral line” by treating human beings as mere objects of research. Do you feel this is an accurate description of the research?

I agree wholeheartedly with the U.S. Catholic bishops’ condemnation of embryonic stem cell research. It truly is “a gravely immoral act.”

Their statement correctly identifies the practice as “the deliberate killing of innocent human beings.”

Some argue that such research could (emphasize “could”) save lives. But with every embryo destroyed, a human life is destroyed, every single time. That’s an “inconvenient truth” that many have chosen to overlook.

God formed Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him.

God told the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5, New American Standard Bible).”

God still creates each of us in our mothers’ wombs through the miracle of human reproduction, “Know that the Lord Himself is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture” (Psalm 100:3, NASB).

We have no right to destroy what God creates in the womb, in His image and for His always beneficial purposes.

PASTOR JON BARTA

Valley Baptist Church

While most people agree that we should not attack the lives of innocent human beings, some give arguments to justify destroying human embryos in order to obtain stem cells. They say: Any harm is outweighed by the potential benefits; the human embryo is not human; killing the human embryo should not be seen as a loss because it doesn’t yet have rights.

We say to choose to directly terminate an innocent human life even to save others is immoral. “The end does not justify the means.”

We say modern biology verifies that the human embryo from the moment of conception has all the genes necessary to grow into the pre-born, the infant, the child, the teenager and the adult.