The Republican majority of the Georgia State Senate is about to humiliate the state yet again with its proposed Senate Bill 169 "Ethical Treatment of Human Embryos Act," which passed legislative committee on Monday. The bill, which defines a living embryo as a person and proscribes doctors and researchers from using new lines of stem cells, will likely come before the Senate for a vote on Thursday.
Bemoaned by scientists, medical professionals, and economic and business leaders as placing ideology ahead of science, conservatives and religious groups are hailing the bill, for establishing that life begins at conception, and for the law’s true intention: to outlaw abortion, a goal its proponents gladly acknowledge.
"Over the next year, countless Georgia families will sit in a doctor's office and be told that a loved one has early Alzheimer's. Thousands of childless couples will turn to infertility clinics to fulfill their dream of parenthood. Hundreds of accident victims will suffer spinal injuries.
But none of those Georgians mattered Monday, when the state Senate Health and Human Services Committee voted 7 to 6 to bestow personhood on embryos." (Downey)
Only strong public opposition is likely to halt its passage. Please see below for ACTION.
SB 169 was released on the same day President Obama lifted Bush’s eight-year ban on federally funded research using embryonic stem cells. Obama said his purpose was "to restore scientific integrity to government decision-making." Georgia’s state senators called it a "coincidence."
Stem cell issues: State could restrict research on embryos
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 10, 2009
...The embryo bill will go before the Senate Rules Committee Wednesday afternoon and senators will decide if it will make it onto the Senate calendar for Thursday [the deadline to be considered during this year’s session]... Senate Rules Committee Chairman Sen. Don Balfour (R-Snellville) said [it] has "an 85 percent chance" of coming to the ...floor for a vote.
Among other things, Senate Bill 169:
-defines a living human embryo as a person and prohibits the destruction of an embryo for any reason, such as scientific research.
-prevents a couple who decided they no longer wanted to try to become pregnant from being able to dispose of their frozen embryos kept at a fertility clinic.
-prohibits couples from donating their embryos to science or discarding them.
Opponents say the bill criminalizes stem cell research in Georgia and would have a chilling effect on the practice of in-vitro fertilization, placing the bill squarely in the debate on abortion and when human life begins.
Sen. David Adelman (D-Decatur) spoke against the bill, saying it addresses an area that is too complicated and controversial for a vote after only a few days of deliberation. "I’m concerned that Georgia is putting politics ahead of science," he said. "We'll send an unmistakable message that Georgia is an anti-science state... This bill isn’t a question of funding. It goes much further. This bill criminalizes the most promising medical research."
As outrageous as SB169 is, the committee had already removed from the bill additional restraints on in-vitro fertilization techniques, after hearing testimony from a wide selection of lobbyists, scientists, educators and businesses.
E. Culver ‘Rusty’ Kidd, a lobbyist for the medical industry, told the committee he opposes the bill. "If you...get down to what this bill really does, you’re defining when life starts."
Dr. Andrew Toledo, a reproductive endocrinologist, said, "The legislation would radically change the way clinics operate."
In a stunningly ironic turn of events, Georgia expects 20,000 biotech industry members for the 2009 BIO International Convention in May. Gov. Sonny Perdue is attempting to present Georgia as a good place to do biotechnology business, and a leader in life sciences and biomedicine.
In fact, Passage of SB 169 would undo those efforts to court the biomedical industry, end major research projects at Georgia universities and cast the state as an anti-science backwater.
"This bill would be viewed as a negative statement on the part on Georgia in regard to the development of sciences and technologies that could cure diseases and suffering," said physician Russell M. Medford, president and CEO of AtheroGenics and former chair of Georgia Bio, a private nonprofit that promotes Georgia’s life sciences industry. "It undermines many years of efforts on the part of the state and our governor to advance the state’s reputation as an innovator in medical and life sciences." Charles Craig, president of Georgia Bio, said the legislation would hurt Georgia's ability to recruit biotech firms. "It would embarrass the state."
Tom Daniel, senior vice chancellor for the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, said the university system opposes the bill. "We're concerned it would have a damaging effect on research being done now and our ability to successfully do that in the future."
Kenneth Stewart, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, listened to the committee debate but did not offer an opinion. All he would say was that during the upcoming biotech convention, "The eyes of the world are going to be on Georgia."
Supporters of SB 169 trotted out the tired "stem cell lines already in existence" canards, and say the bill is an attempt to respect life, "even that of a 6-day-old human embryo that might have a chance to live if placed inside a woman." At the same time, they claim to have "always supported adult stem cell research, which to date has 70 known cures to its credit." (Becker)
Right to life supporters of the bill testifying at the meeting included the Georgia Baptist Convention and the Georgia Catholic Conference. Danial Becker, president of Georgia Right to Life, argues that the bill would protect life from its earliest moment. "No one's right for a cure supercedes another's right to life."
Maureen Downey's editorial Tuesday, Embryo rights go too far in Senate bill, excoriates the bills sponsors and supporters.
Senate Bill 169 —- the Ethical Treatment of Human Embryos Act —- declares: "A living in vitro human embryo is a biological human being who is not the property of any person or entity." Should that bill become law, it will halt the embryonic stem cell research in Georgia that offers the promise of curing Alzheimer's and repairing spinal cord injuries.
More immediately, it will so complicate legal questions around frozen embryos that it could drive in vitro fertilization clinics out of the state, forcing desperate Georgia couples to go out of state as well.
...While stem cell research may potentially save many lives, those opponents argued it deals a death blow to the embryo itself, which they see as an unconscionable trade-off.
...They are entitled to that belief, which is deeply grounded in their faiths. However, the conviction that pinpoint-sized cells have the same rights as children battling leukemia or teenagers paralyzed from a diving accident is a minority opinion according to most national polls.
...A paraplegic as the result of a motorcycle accident, Capitol lobbyist Rusty Kidd spoke against the bill, asking senators to permit the stem cell research that might enable him to walk again. But he wondered about the bill's real agenda, noting, "... if you go through all the minutiae, what you’re basically doing is defining when life starts and when it doesn’t start. All the other words mean nothing."
... [T]he bill's elevation of the embryo to personhood could criminalize infertility specialists who may destroy an embryo in the process of helping a couple become pregnant. "If embryos are full humans, then anything that puts an embryo at risk could be construed as a criminal violation."
A couple no longer seeking pregnancy could be forced to pay about $500 in annual fees to preserve embryos they no longer need or want. When questioned whether the state of Georgia step forward to pay for their preservation in perpetuity, state Sen. Preston Smith(R-Rome) replied, "I think it’s a very good question. I don’t think we have an answer. There are implications of defining something as a person at the moment of conception and that's one of them."
The Atlanta Journal Constitution editorial department, in its zeal to present "two sides to every issue," posted this Op-Ed article challenging Downey's editorial:
Life far too precious to exploit
By Daniel Becker [who is also a columnist for the Christian News Wire]
We at Georgia Right to Life... are opposed to destructive human embryonic stem cell research and applaud ... Senate Bill 169.
The human embryo is one of us, fully human with great potential. Every living human being goes through the embryonic state and through the continuum of stages from fertilization until old age, unless interrupted by death. This is true medical science. SB 169 will ensure that Georgia taxpayers only fund ethical and fiscally responsible research into the future.
Our opponents seem to be far more committed to unbridled science than to human dignity and ethics. Do money and economic development mean more to Georgia than the ethical protection of human life? Should we sacrifice a human life for the remote possibility of a medical cure for someone else?
We think not. Georgians are God-fearing, good-hearted people who value life more than money.
... Since many researchers will not be content to use only so-called "surplus" embryos, they will demand support for the creation and destruction of human embryos just for research, through human cloning and other methods.
Human cloning efforts could possibly lead to human embryo farms, shades of movies such as The Matrix, where human beings are used as power sources, or The Island, where humans are cloned for their body parts.
Human embryos will not be used for ghoulish practices like human embryo farms —- not in Georgia. They will not be used for forming human-animal hybrids —- not in Georgia. They will not be used for exploitation and raw research material —- not in Georgia. They will not be cloned and brought to birth in an artificial womb —- not in Georgia.
As far as we can tell, Obama has sealed his confirmation as the "abortion president" with his executive order Monday. We in Georgia, with the passing of SB 169, will seal our confirmation as pro-life people.
I sure don't know who he means by our "pro-life people." I'd rather be used as a power source or be cloned for body parts.
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The Senate Health and Human Services Committee offered these substitutionsto SB 169. Lawyer types and legislative fans will probably want to read them. I suggest you place a pillow under your chin, for when your jaw drops.
Please forgive me any errors or failures to get links to work, I'm rushing this out.
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CALL TO ACTION: Please contact the state senators listed below. The bill is up for consideration WEDNESDAY as to whether it will be included in the last day of activating legislature on Thursday.
DISTRICT INFORMATION
If you don't know your district, go here.
The Republicans
Don Thomas (Chair)
District 54 (Rep)
Catoosa (Pt.), Gordon (Pt.), Murray, Whitfield
Phone 706 259-3921
Fax 706 259-3991
don.thomas@senate.ga.gov
Renee Unterman (Vice Chair)
District 45 (Rep)
Gwinnett (pt)
Phone 404 463-1368
Fax 404 651-6768
renee.unterman@senate.ga.gov
Greg Goggans (Secretary)
District 7 (Rep)
Phone 404 463-5263
Fax 404 656-648
greg.goggans@senate.ga.gov
Don Balfour
District 9 (Rep) Gwinnett (Pt.)
Phone 404 656 0095
Fax 404 656 6581
don.balfour@senate.ga.gov
Johnny Grant
District 25 (Rep) Baldwin, Butts, Greene, Hancock, Jasper, Jones (Pt.), Morgan, Putman, Taliaferro, Warren (Pt.)
Phone 404 656-0082
Fax 404 657-3248
johnny.grant@senate.ga.gov
Lee Hawkins
District 49 (Rep) Hall, Jackson (Pt.)
Phone 404 656-8773
Fax 536-1229
lee.hawkins@senate.ga.gov
Preston Smith
District 52 (Rep) Bartow (Pt.), Floyd, Gordon (Pt.)
404 656-0034
fax 404 463-4161
preston.smith@senate.ga.gov
Judson Hill
District 32 (Rep) Cobb (Pt.) Fulton (Pt.)
Phone 404 656-0150
Fax 404 463-2535
judson.hill@senate.ga.gov
John J. Wiles
District 37 (Rep) Cobb (Pt.)
Phone 404 657-0406
Fax 404 657-0459
john.wiles@senate.ga.gov
And the Democrats
David Adelman (D-Minority Whip)
District 42 Dekalb (Pt.)
Phone 404 853-8206
Fax 404 651-7078
david.adelman@senate.ga.gov
Gloria S. Butler (Deputy Minority Whip)
District 55 (D) Dekalb (Pt.), Gwinnett (Pt.)
Phone 404 656 0075
Fax 404 657-9728
gloria.butler@senate.ga.gov
Horacena Tate
District 38 (D) Fulton (Pt.)
Phone 404 463-8053
Fax 404 463-7783
horacena.tate@senate.ga.gov
Steve Henson
District 41 (D) Dekalb (Pt.), Gwinnett (Pt.)
Phone 404 656-0085
Fax 404 651-7078
steve.henson@senate.ga.gov