KING VOTES TO
PROTECT LIFE,
TAXPAYERS FROM
PAYING FOR RESEARCH THAT KILLS HUMAN EMBRYOS
WASHINGTON - As President Bush is
expected to veto legislation that would require taxpayer funding for
research on human embryos, Iowa Congressman Steve King voted for two
bills to protect taxpayers from subsidizing unreliable research
which kills human embryos.
With the support of King, the U.S.
House last night passed S. 3504, the
Fetus Farming Prohibition Act of 2006. The
Fetus Farming Prohibition Act makes fetal farming
illegal, which is paid or donated transactions of human fetal tissue
knowing that the pregnancy was deliberately initiated to provide
human tissue, and issues fines or up to 10 years imprisonment for
violation.
In addition, while King urged his
colleagues to support the bill, the House defeated S. 2754, the
Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Act. By a vote of 273 -
154, the measure failed to get the two-thirds majority vote need to
pass, under the suspension of the rules procedure in the House. The
Alternative Pluripotent Stem Cell Act would have promoted
methods of producing stem cells for medical research that are not
derived from killing human embryos.
"We have an obligation as a human race
to continue to search for every ethical means of curing devastating
diseases, promote scientific advancement and respect human life,"
said King. "We cannot divert the lion's share of our resources away
from truly promising treatments that all Americans can support to
fund morally controversial research when the benefits remain
speculative."
