Contact: Stacey Holliday, Concerned Women for America, 202-488-7000 ext. 126

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 /Christian Newswire/ -- Striking down once again the notion that destroying human embryos is necessary for medical cures, researchers have discovered that stem cells found in the amniotic fluid of pregnant women have the potential to grow into brain, muscle and other tissues without the resulting threat of tumors, thereby providing a means for the treatment of a myriad of diseases.  This advance in the stem cell debate is one more proof that human beings do not need to be destroyed in order to find medical cures.

Congress is scheduled to vote this Thursday, January 11, on H.R. 3, a bill to expand federal funding for unethical embryonic stem cell research.  Concerned Women for America (CWA) began asking Americans last week to urge their congressmen to oppose H.R. 3.

CWA President Wendy Wright said, “The benefits patients seek from stem cells are available without destroying human embryos.  This latest research on amniotic cells is further evidence that we don’t need to kill one life in order to save another.  Amniotic cells are proven to be as effective as embryonic stem cells, without posing embryonic stem cells’ ethical dilemmas or threatening risks to patients of causing tumors.  Scientific research proves that the moral choice is also the healthiest and most effective way to find cures.” 

According to an article in Monday’s Washington Post, “the new cells are adding credence to an emerging consensus among experts that the popular distinction between embryonic and ‘adult’ stem cells — those isolated from adult bone marrow and other organs — is artificial. … In the laboratory, the amniotic cells can mature into all of the major types of cells, dividing at the impressive clip of once every 36 hours yet never showing signs of aging and never becoming tumors — even after living for more than two years in a lab.”

Wright concluded, “We hope the 110th Congress will begin by voting down a dangerous bill that forces Americans to pay for experiments that destroy the most vulnerable human lives.”  

Concerned Women for America is the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization.