In the often angry debate that accompanied the Congressional debate on embryonic stem cell research, Sen. Orrin Hatch, who voted in favor of federal funds for embryonic stem cell research, made a very significant observation that has been generally ignored by the media after the House passed the stem cell research bill.

The bill, H.R. 810, he noted, “compels us to confront fundamental questions: When does human life begin? How do we promote groundbreaking science while preserving our core values?” The bill passed the Senate with a vote of 63 to 37, three votes short of enough to override the presidential veto.

When President Bush vetoed the Senate passed version of the bill, he did so surrounded by a number of children born as a result of an embryo-adoption program and their parents. In vetoing the bill he looked around at the little children and said, “This bill would support the taking of innocent human life. Each of these human embryos is a unique human life with inherent dignity and matchless value. These boys and girls are not spare parts.”

While that is certainly true today, those little children did not grow up in a Petri dish. They HAD begun their earthly journeys in a Petri dish, and had been stored in a freezer until some couple at considerable expense had the fertilized ovum implanted into the womb of its real or adoptive mother. Only then was the fertilized ovum able to grow into a baby. Without a real, live human mother, they could not have survived.

Two children in my extended family began life in a Petri dish. But they were not born until they were implanted nto the womb of a remarkable young woman – the wife of my paralyzed nephew. Without Julie, they would not be here. There were similar debates when in vitro fertilization became available. Some people believed in vitro fertilization was immoral. However, today there are more than a million people whose mortal existence began in a Petri dish.

Senator Hatch, who fully supports embryo adoption, adult stem cell research which already has led to numerous cures, and is the prime sponsor of cord blood legislation has a long and impressive record as a pro-life Senator. He also supports an anti-abortion Constitutional amendment and worked to out-law the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortion.

However, while he respects those with different views, he also firmly believes “that human life requires and begins in a mother's nurturing womb.”

Think about that for a moment. This powerful politician, who is a father and grandfather, is telling the world that there is something that only women can do – and that is to grow a baby. That is something that is uniquely female. While much has been made of the research that has developed cloning of animals, such as Dolly the sheep, the fertilized egg that became Dolly had to be implanted into the womb of a female sheep. Growing a baby is something no male can do.

Since the US Supreme Court in 1973 declared, in Roe v Wade, that a woman has a “constitutional” right to kill her unborn child, disposing of fertilized but unused human ova does not to be a major issue for most people. Especially since many naturally fertilized ova do not always grow to become newborn babies.

What I believe is a major new concept in the debate is Senator Hatch’s recognition that babies really can only grow to viability when a mother, natural or adoptive, is involved. As he put it:

“A critical aspect of being pro-life is helping the living. Helping those struggling with the challenges of debilitating diseases is exactly what embryonic stem-cell research promises.
“This is a difficult issue, and we are being forced to draw a line between legitimate science and unethical tinkering with human life. As we learned with the debate over in vitro fertilization, this line does exist. And I believe that the United States must lead the world to help establish the moral and ethical safeguards that allows embryonic stem cell research to go forward in the interest of mankind.”

Senator Hatch has articulated a view that is the exact opposite of feminism – which basically holds that in order to be of any value to the world, women must go out and compete in masculine endeavors. In fact, since I was a building contractor back in 1966 when the National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded, I was invited to become a founding member of the Rochester, New York branch.

I met several times with the women, all followers of Betty Friedan, author of “Feminine Mystique” and founder of NOW. Betty’s wrote, “A woman is handicapped by her sex, and handicaps society, either by slavishly copying the pattern of man's advance in the professions, or by refusing to compete with man at all.” I thought the women who approached me (because I was in a male dominated profession, not because I was the mother of six growing children), were actually a bunch of losers who would never go anywhere. I suggested to them that they stop trying to do battle with men and set up a program that talked about the importance of the things women were doing – i.e. being mothers, teaching, nursing – to a well ordered and happy nation.

They rejected that idea and embarked on a nonsensical program that soon became the movement to legalize abortion on demand, based on the bad science that babies are part of the woman’s body and therefore women had the right to dispose of their offspring like disposing of a wart or a tumor. I pointed out that I agreed that women should have control over their own bodies, but an unborn baby is NOT part of her body but the body of someone else and she did not have the right to destroy the body of someone else. I suggested that women needed to control their bodies BEFORE they jumped into bed with a man. After that, they didn’t want me to even be a member of NOW.

It’s been a long time since I’ve heard ANYONE make such a great case for the real value of women that Senator Hatch made in the stem cell debate. Mothers especially need to hear his view on this subject. Without their willingness to bear and rear children, not only will families disappear, but also nations.

http://hatch.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.View&PressRelease_id=1353


Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of Liberty: www.bannerofliberty.com