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February
19 , 2003 “I am delighted that apparently so many legislators understand the real dangers presented by this legislation,” noted William F. Bolan, Jr., Executive Director of the New Jersey Catholic Conference (NJCC), in reaction to the tabling. “I also want to thank our diocesan Respect Life directors and their parish volunteers who so effectively contacted their state legislators to ask them to oppose this bill,” Bolan added. Bolan stressed that the NJCC would remain vigilant against, “any ammendments that might be proposed. If they are equally dangerous, we will oppose them and ask our parish volunteers to do the same.” Last month, the Bishops of New Jersey released a detailed and stern statement expressing their opposition to the legislation, while noting their support of adult stem cell research, “We have great compassion for those who suffer from illnesses and look to such research to cure or otherwise treat their disease… Adult stem cells come from adult tissue, placentas, or umbilical cord blood and can be retrieved without harming the donor,” the Bishop’s statement declared. Regarding somatic cell nuclear transplantation, otherwise known as cloning, the Bishops noted, “This legislation will allow the creation of cloned human beings to be implanted into a uterus at the embryonic stage and grown up until the ninth month of gestation for the express purpose of destroying them in order to harvest their organs and cells.” The Bishops question a statement within the legislation which implies that such research should be publicly funded, forcing “morally opposed taxpayers to subsidize research that requires the destruction of innocent human life.” However, at the crux of their argument, the Bishops remind legislators that the sanctity of human life, “demands respect for all human life, especially in its most vulnerable stages and conditions.”
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