Hatch Doesn't Buy Morality Argument Against Stem Cell Research

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) Opponents of increased federal funding for embryonic stem cell research say such medical research is equivalent to abortion and therefore immoral. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, sponsor of stem cell legislation in the U.S. Senate, disagrees.

"They believe that the minute that egg is fertilized that it becomes a human being - I don't believe that. I believe that that fertilized egg doesn't have a chance of becoming a human being unless it's implanted in a womb," explains Utah's senior senator.

The U.S. Senate is debating a measure already passed by the House that would allow federal funding of research on embryos derived from fertility treatments. If such embryos qualify as life, as opponents of federal funding contend, Hatch questions why the pro-life faction allows them to be destroyed in the first place.

"Why would they allow 7,000 to 20,000 of these to be destroyed every year as hospital waste and not utilize them for the benefit of, let's say, all these young kids who are suffering from virulent diabetes who might lose eyes, fingers, arms [and] legs."

Hatch supports using the left-over embryos from fertility clinics to advance medical treatment, but President Bush has vowed to veto any legislation that expands federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

To hear more from Hatch on the stem cell funding debate in Congress,  click here.

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