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Testimony for the Higher Education and Work Force Development Policy and Finance Division Chair: Representative Tom Rukavina February 22, 2007
BISHOP RICHARD E. PATES
Good afternoon Chairman Rukavina and members of the Committee. My name is Bishop Richard Pates and I am the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. I am speaking to you today on behalf of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, representing my fellow Catholic Bishops of the six dioceses and the 1.25 million Catholics of Minnesota. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
I am here to speak in opposition to House File 34, because of its explicit allowance of embryonic stem cell research and its language that permits the University of Minnesota to use state funding to conduct such research. Catholic moral teaching and the principles upon which our teaching is founded - its Aristotelian roots and Judeo-Christian tradition - instructs us that every human life from the moment of conception until natural death, has intrinsic dignity and deserves our respect and protection.
The stage of development or circumstances of the conception of any human does not diminish intrinsic dignity. We may not choose to value some humans more than others because we think that something about their nature or development differentiates them from any of us or from what is human. The evident applicability of these principals is universal, and thus our advocacy is not of religious derivation but based on the truth of what constitutes the human person.
Embryos created for fertility treatments should not be exempt from the legal or ethical standards that would be applied to any other unborn embryo. An unborn child in the womb is protected by legal and ethical standards from being destroyed for research purposes. The so-called "excess" embryos in any situation should not become fodder for lethal experimentation simply because they may die soon, any more than a prisoner condemned to death or a terminally ill patient should.
Our principles surrounding the inherent dignity of human life, and our conviction that deliberately destroying human life for research purposes regardless of a human’s development is morally wrong are not only held by religious adherents but by a wide spectrum of Minnesotans. Since you and I are the same persons at every stage of development, any direct intervention to end life at any point means a particular person no longer exists. We should not be forced by our state government to pay for the direct killing of innocent human persons with our tax dollars. To ask us to do so is to ask us to violate our core principles - the very foundation of our beings.
My fellow bishops and I would therefore urge the bill's authors to consider amending this bill to exclude the use of embryonic stem cells. In addition to the grave moral issues surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells, it is our understanding that the use of stem cells from adults, amniotic fluid, and umbilical cord blood for research continues to hold great promise and can accomplish the admirable goals of addressing illness, physical deterioration, and aging. We can have our cake and eat it, too, if we accept reasonable limitations and the responsibility entrusted to us to protect life at all stages.
We urge you, the members of our state legislature, to bear in mind that any decisions regarding biotechnology and human experimentation must be based upon our respect for the dignity of human life from its very beginning. If we allow and even encourage through state funding, the direct destruction of some humans for the potential benefit of others, then we are jeopardizing the values that make up the fabric of our society and running the risk of progressively relativizing human life.
Thank You.
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