Georgia Senate Panel Advances Personhood Bill

By Lawrence D. Jones, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, March 10, 2009

A Georgia Senate committee advanced a bill on Monday that would halt all embryonic stem cell research in the state.

The Georgia Senate's Health and Human Services Committee moved Senate Bill 169 on a 7-6 vote on Monday, the same day the president lifted restrictions against federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

The measure, entitled "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."

The bills will go before the Senate Rules Committee and could reach the Senate Floor on Thursday.

Several pro-life groups, including Georgia Right to Life, testified in favor of the legislation before the committee.

"The Human Embryo is one of us, fully human with great potential. Biological science tells us this," Daniel Becker, president of Georgia Right to Life, said during his testimony before the Senate committee. "We do not think that we need to sacrifice human life for money and economic development or the remote possibility of a medical cure for someone else."

The legislation would allow adult stem cell research and embryonic stem cell research using existing stem cell lines. It would also limit the creation of new embryos in Georgia for destructive, scientific purposes, such as HESCR, human cloning, human-animal hybrids, and gestating in artificial wombs.

"We have always supported adult stem cell research which to date has 70 known cures to its credit," said Becker in a statement.

President Barack Obama on Monday signed an executive order rescinding President Bush's order in 2001 that limited federal funding of embryonic stem cell research to existing stem cell lines.

The decision drew outrage from pro-family and pro-life groups who believe the destruction of human embryos in the process of harvesting the stem cells is tantamount to killing human life.

"With consent from their biological parents, these frozen embryos will be taken and killed for their fetal tissue. This will be done despite the fact hundreds of frozen embryos have been adopted and successfully born as healthy children," stated Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. "Most experts believe this supply of embryos will soon be exhausted by federally funded research demands, and this will build pressure to allow embryos to be created by cloning for the sole purpose of harvesting their fetal tissue before they reach 14 days' gestation," he added.

Five states, including Maryland, North Dakota, Montana, South Carolina and Alabama, have recently introduced similar "personhood" bills, which seek to apply the word "persons" to all human life, irrespective to biological development.