Catholic conference opposes two anti-life bills

If two bills currently under consideration by the State Legislature become law:

* a baby could be cloned and then killed anytime before birth for stem-cell research; and

* a 14-year-old girl could go to a drugstore without permission or a prescription and buy hormones strong enough to kill her unborn child.

Time to act

Kathleen Gallagher of the New York State Catholic Conference is asking Catholics to contact their senators and assemblymen to protest those bills before cloning and over-the-counter emergency contraception are made legal in New York State.

The Catholic Conference advocates on behalf of the state's bishops on matters of concern to the Church.

Mrs. Gallagher, the Conference's pro-life activities director, noted that the bills were not covered during the annual Public Policy Forum, held two weeks ago at the State Capitol. The Forum gathers Catholics from all over the state to lobby their elected officials on selected issues.

Cloning

The first bill (A6249) was proposed by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver three weeks ago and passed by the Assembly last week, as what Mrs. Gallagher called a "gift" to actor Christopher Reeve, a stem-cell research advocate paralyzed since 1995. He was in Albany to speak at a biotechnology conference.

The bill, which purports to be a ban on cloning, actually authorizes cloning as long as the resulting embryo is used only for research purposes and then destroyed. The ban applies only to transferring the embryos to a woman's womb and allowing them to gestate and be born.

Mrs. Gallagher called the bill "very, very deceptive," saying that "it does not ban cloning; it bans the survival of human clones. It's basically giving a big green light to cloning in New York State."

Death sentence

Embryos created under the terms of the bill could even be implanted in a woman's womb, Mrs. Gallagher said, as long as they're killed before birth -- even if it's just before birth.

She expressed outrage that the bill had already passed in one house with little argument. "Doesn't the public deserve an honest debate on a bill this fundamental?" she questioned.

Mrs. Gallagher cited a recent Gallup poll that showed 61 percent of Americans in opposition to cloning for research purposes and noted that cloning has already been banned at the federal level.

Adult stem cells

She pointed out that the Catholic Church does not prohibit research using adult stem cells, which need not be harvested from fetuses. In fact, she said, adult stem-cell research actually holds more promise than that using embryonic cells.

A recent Associated Press story spoke of two astonishing medical cases: one in which teenager Dimitri Bonnville was injected with adult stem cells after a nail pierced his heart and subsequently began growing new heart muscle; and another where Parkinson's disease sufferer Dennis Turner of California was treated with his own neural stem cells and had 80 percent of his symptoms disappear.

"The Church finds much more practical, useful, beneficial research in the area of adult stem cells," said Mrs. Gallagher.

Speaking out

She added that "concerned citizens should urge their State Senator to support a ban on all human cloning. Legislation has been introduced to do this -- S206 by Senator Raymond Meier (R-Utica) -- and should be vigorously supported."

Allowing even some cloning, she said, is starting down a dangerous road. Scientists may argue that embryos can't give consent and so it's permissible to take their cells, but neither can children or persons with mental disabilities give consent.

"Should we be able to harvest their organs?" the lobbyist asked, noting that if cloning becomes legal, such things could happen. "I don't think [the lawmakers] understand what they've done."

Contraception

The other bill at issue (A888), which has a host of sponsors in the State Assembly, would allow over-the-counter distribution of emergency contraceptive drugs (often called the "morning-after pill") by pharmacies, schools and clinics, without a doctor's prescription.

Emergency contraceptives are essentially high doses of birth-control pills -- a combination of estrogen and progestin hormones -- taken up to 72 hours after sexual intercourse.

Proponents of the bill decry what they say is a current "lack of access" for women to emergency contraception. But Mrs. Gallagher pointed out that anyone can order the pill from a number of websites just by answering a few simple questions, and even have it delivered to their local pharmacy within hours.

Depending on where a woman is in her menstrual cycle when she takes the drugs, said Mrs. Gallagher, they can cause a chemical abortion instead of just preventing conception.

Dangers

The Catholic Conference and others are concerned about health risks associated with the medication.

If the bill is passed, Mrs. Gallagher explained, teenage girls could walk into a local drugstore and buy massive doses of hormones without even giving a medical history -- and could return week after week and do the same thing. She said that no studies have yet shown the long-term effects of this on a woman's body.

With the current furor about whether medications like ephedra should be available over-the-counter, Mrs. Gallagher said that State lawmakers do seem to be listening to the Catholic Conference's arguments against this bill.

"Keep in mind, regular doses of birth control are not available without a prescription," she said. "No other hormones are available over-the-counter."

Allowing anyone to buy emergency contraception, and to do so as often as they wish, she added, "just doesn't make sense."

(3/27/2003) [[In-content Ad]]