NRLC Press Release: President Bush's Statement
For immediate release:                                                         For more information:

Friday, August 10, 2001                                                            Laura Echevarria (202) 626-8825

 The following statement can be attributed to David N. O’Steen, Ph.D., Executive Director of the National Right to Life Committee:

             We commend President Bush’s decision to prevent the federal government from becoming involved in research and experimentation that would require the deliberate destruction of human embryos.  In taking this position, the President has acted to save the lives that he could.

             We further commend President Bush’s strong opposition to all human cloning and to the creation of human embryos for research purposes.

             While we mourn the lives of those children that were killed to derive the sixty-plus stem cell lines that currently exist, there is nothing that we, as a pro-life community or President Bush can do to restore the lives of those children.  Neither President Bush nor the federal government had anything to do with the destruction of those embryos or the establishment of those cell lines.  Certainly, if the President could have prevented the death of those embryos, he would have.  President Bush has shown his commitment to protecting the lives that he can.

             In his statement last night, President Bush said that he believes “human life is a sacred gift from our creator.  I worry about a culture that devalues life, and believe as your president I have an important obligation to foster and encourage respect for life in America and throughout the world.”

             Now, the pro-life movement must focus its energy to stop efforts in Congress that would require the destruction of human embryos for research purposes.

 The National Right to Life Committee is the nation’s largest pro-life group with affiliates in all 50 states and over 3,000 local chapters nationwide.  National Right to Life works through education and legislation to protect those threatened by abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and assisted suicide.

For further information on these issues, see the NRLC website at www.nrlc.org\killing_embryos\index.html.