Opposition to embryonic stem-cell research is not a faith-based belief and does not stem from "a dispute between reason versus ignorance," a priest and theologian said Oct. 13 in a presentation at Santa Clara University.

Sulpician Father Gerald D. Coleman, a professor of moral theology at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, spoke less than a month before Californians were to vote on Proposition 71, the Embryo Cloning and Stem-Cell Research Bond Act. The measure would dedicate $3 billion in state funds to embryonic stem-cell research and make freedom to conduct all stem-cell research a constitutional right for scientists in the state.

Father Coleman's talk on "Stem Cells, Moral Status and California Proposition 71" was part of the Jesuit-run university's "Ethics at Noon" series, sponsored by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

Citing comments by former first lady Nancy Reagan and her children, Ron Reagan and Patti Davis, in favor of stem-cell research involving embryos and comments by the late president's son, Michael Reagan, against it, the priest said the debate "is certainly not merely a family disagreement but a controversy with national and international repercussions."

Ex-President Ronald Reagan died in June after a long bout with Alzheimer's disease, one of the many illnesses that proponents say embryonic stem-cell research could cure or significantly affect.

"The entire stem-cell controversy is heavily rooted in hope," Father Coleman said. "Advocates of embryonic stem-cell research are playing on the hopes of many for cures and disease prevention, thus gaining support for this scientific research.

"Giving people false hopes is tantamount to emotional manipulation and false advertising," he added. "Careful and thoughtful dialogue must mark all future conversations on (embryonic stem-cell research), a dialogue fostered in a true spirit of humility, respect for human life, patience (and) a capacity to see issues through the eyes of others."

He disputed charges by proponents of embryonic stem-cell research that opposition to such research "rests on religion attempting to block science and amounts to imposing religious views on public policy."

Father Coleman quoted a talk by Jennifer Lahl, executive director of the Center of Bioethics and Culture in Oakland, to the 2004 convention of the biotechnology industry: "Once the sperm and the egg are united, and the DNA double helixes are raveled and unraveled, you have a human. If you put that embryo into a woman, you're going to have a baby in nine months' time. What else are you going to call it, a tree?"

"In other words, common scientific understanding is that the embryo is human life," the priest said. "While faith and religion might endorse this point, they do not create it."

Father Coleman also said "good and wise moral stewardship is not being employed in the stem-cell research crusade."

Proposition 71 would "cost taxpayers $6 billion in principal and interest," he added. "At the same time, 7 million Californians have no health insurance coverage and many more are in need of education and other state and local services."

The theologian said another important factor in the debate "is a fundamental matter of human equality" for all life.

"History shows that ethnic groups have been the subject of rejection and 'cleansing,' and now the new category named as different enough to experiment on and destroy is the human embryo," Father Coleman said.

He dismissed arguments that frozen embryos likely to be discarded when not used for in vitro fertilization attempts could be a morally acceptable source of embryonic stem cells for research.

"These embryos are trapped in liquid nitrogen and when released show themselves to be human life," Father Coleman said. "However, it would be immoral to permit them to be used for their stem cells as this amounts to harvesting them and causing their demise."

To bolster his argument, he cited a survey of 217 U.S. in vitro fertilization clinics published in the September 2004 issue of Politics and the Life Sciences.

The study "surprisingly indicates how many of these clinics have prayer services when frozen embryos are destroyed," he said. "This example throws light on the fact that these embryos are treated with respect."

---CNS