Pro-life group condemns Illinois governor’s embryonic stem-cell research fund

Jul 13, 2005 / 22:00 pm

The Illinois Family Institute condemned Gov. Rod Blagojevich's decision to create a public fund that will support embryonic stem-cell research.

The governor issued an executive order July 12 that instructs the Illinois Department of Public Health to create the Illinois Regenerative Medicine Institute and disburse $10 million to support medical research for cures and treatments. The institute is expected to be up and running by the end of the year.

"The governor has done an end-run around the legislative process to fund research that advances a utilitarian agenda in which the end justifies the means," said the family institute’s executive director Peter LaBarbera in a press release July 12.

According to LaBarbera, Blagojevich has “misuse[d] his executive power to endorse liberal-agenda positions on life issues at the expense of reasoned democratic debate that would let the people of Illinois have their say on these matters.”

The social activist cited neuroscientist Dr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, who states that embryonic stem-cell research is “always morally objectionable, because the human embryo must be destroyed in order to harvest its stem cells.”

LaBarbera pointed out that many advances have been made with adult stem-cell research, “and none so far” with embryonic stem cells.

“There is no need to inject scarce taxpayer dollars into one side of this moral debate,” he said.