Blagojevich forced to halt fetus farm plans   

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jill Stanek, President
815-464-0984 or 815-274-2744
email: rtlwillco@ifrl.org

MOKENA -- The day before Gov. Rod Blagojevich forced Illinois taxpayers to advance $5 million more for embryonic stem cell experimentation, President Bush scythed a huge swath through Blagojevich's plans to establish fetus farms in Illinois.

On July 19, President Bush signed the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act of 2006, a law that prohibits growing human embryos in animals or humans for research.

Blagojevichs 2005 embryonic stem cell research executive order included authorization for payment for transplantation, or implantation of [embryonic] tissue, with no age restriction. It also included payment for cadaveric fetal tissue, or dead fetuses.

In other words, Blagojevich was planning to harvest a new crop in Illinois, fetuses, in uterine farms, said Jill Stanek, President of Right to Life of Will County.

In October 2005, bioethicist Robert George of Princeton noted in The Weekly Standard that his home state of New Jersey had also passed legislation authorizing the harvest of cadaveric fetal tissue.

What the bill envisages and promotes, in other words, wrote George, is fetus farming.

George theorized that because week-old embryos, the age currently being experimented upon, have a propensity to grow into cancerous tumors, researchers were beginning to look toward older preborn babies.

At eight weeks gestation, basic structures for all body systems are established. All remaining time in the uterus is spent growing and refining tissues and organs.

Because the developmental process stabilizes cells (which is why we are not all masses of tumors), wrote George, it is likely true that stem cells, tissues, and organs harvested from human beings at, say, 16 or 18 weeks or later could be used in the treatment of diseases."

Concluded Stanek, The plans to harvest body parts from older preborns have now been plowed under, making embryonic stem cell research ever more implausible.