Defunding Life

In his 2013 budget, President Obama has defunded the Embryo Adoption Awareness Campaign. Yesterday the Washington Times reported that the Department of Health and Human Services has requested that the Embryo Adoption program will be discontinued in FY2013.

The article reports:

“I think that daily we talk to people about … embryo donation and adoption, and we hear the response, ‘Really? I didn’t know that was even possible,’” said Ron Stoddart, executive director of Nightlight Christian Adoptions, which in 1997 pioneered the process of infertile couples “adopting” the extra embryos that another couple’s in-vitro fertilization process inevitably produces.

Hannah Strege, the first of these frozen, unique “snowflake” babies, was born in December 1998. Researchers think as many as 50,000 of the 600,000 cryogenically preserved embryos in the U.S. eventually could become available for adoption.

The fate of the embryo-adoption awareness program is not known. As with all White House budget requests, congressional appropriations committees will decide whether they become law.

The article further reports:

The HHS report said the reason to end the $1.9 million embryo-adoption awareness program is “limited interest.” Only a “very small pool of applicants, many of whom are repeat recipients,” are seeking the grants, it said.

Mailee Smith, staff counsel at Americans United for Life, said such a decision is more evidence of “the pro-abortion slant of this administration.”

“Why would the Obama administration cut $2 million for adoption awareness, but keep $1 million a day for Planned Parenthood?” she asked.

Also, having hundreds of thousands of frozen human embryos in storage “is a devastating situation” for many people, Ms. Smith said.

This is purposeful funding (defunding actually). The frozen embryos have so far produced more than 100 snowflake babies. This is a way for couples who cannot have children to become parents. It is a wonderful program that declares the sanctity of all life and needs to be continued.

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The Free Market Eventually Triumphs

Today’s Daily Caller posted a story about a change in the research and use of stem cells.

The article reported:

Geron Corp., the world’s leading embryo research company, announced it was closing down its much-touted stem cell program, despite the guarantee of more government aid from Democratic-affiliated sources.

The article explained that most stem cells used in hospitals and medical facilities today are adult stem cells taken from the patient’s own body.

The article concludes:

Those “adult stem cells” can be stimulated to regenerate damaged hearts and other organs. In one peer reviewed study published on Nov. 16, more than a dozen heart-failure patients gained an average 12 percent improvement in heart function from their own stimulated stem cells.

This uncontroversial adult cell technology was pioneered by hospitals, not drug companies. It is sufficiently reliable that insurance companies green-light its use for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, lupus and many other ailments, and it is cheered by social conservatives and religious groups because it improves medical treatments without killing human embryos.

When a technology works well, it will be used more, without having to rely on the government to pay for it.

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