Contact: Marie Tasy
Public & Legislative Affairs Director
(908) 276-6620
(732) 846-2000
January 27, 2005-
Marie Tasy, Executive Director of New Jersey Right to Life issued the following statement in response to the the Quinnipiac Poll released today.
"Today's Quinnipiac Poll is misleading and certainly not an accurate read on where the public stands on the issue of stem cell research because the questions did not distinguish between the different types of stem cell research and deliberately omitted any reference to "embryonic," a much more controversial and publicly opposed type of stem cell research," said Tasy. "New Jersey taxpayers want their hard earned money spent wisely and ethically. That is why the majority of people support non-embryonic or adult stem cell research which is the only research that has thus far led to cures," said Tasy.
This deceptive tactic, of omitting any reference to "embryonic," has also been employed by the Acting Governor in his State of the State Address and in his January 24 letter to President Bush. "The word "embryonic" was never mentioned because there is not widespread support for "research" which involves the deliberate mutilation and killing of human beings."
This on-going campaign of withholding the truth from the public was part of a larger strategy used to gain legislative approval for the NJ Law, P.L. 2003, C.203, which authorizes the cloning and killing of human beings, under the guise of "stem cell research." "The Legislature arrogantly rushed this law through without sufficient public notice or input in a lame duck session and refused to heed requests issued by NJ Members of Congress and numerous experts in the field of law and bioethics to replace the phony ban on human cloning with a real one. The defective language in the NJ law which purported to ban human cloning, actually authorized human cloning and the gestating and harvesting of cloned babies for their organs and tissues through the newborn stages," said Tasy. "A vast majority of the public does not support human cloning and that is the obvious reason for this verbal trickery," said Tasy. Originally, Democratic lawmakers also publicly stated they would not push for public funding of this research and have since gone back on their word by secretly pushing through $11.5 Million in last June's budget for the Stem Cell Institute and are now calling for an additional $380 million bond scheme to fund it.
Every day, more and more cures are occurring through the use of adult stem cells, while research performed on human embryos left over from fertility clinics and cloned human embryos have yet to provide one single cure. "Public support cannot be accurately gauged on this issue unless the public is asked whether they would support adult stem cell research which has no ethical baggage and is already providing cures or embryonic stem cell research which has not provided any cures and involves killing a human embryo. There is no question that if given the choice, NJ citizens would overwhelmingly and exclusively choose adult stem cell research, the only ethical and practical research which is already providing cures and treatment."
|
