Bush administration encouraging destruction of embryos [View All]

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http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3242/7921

BY ANGELA VALDEZ

Here's a strange new twist in the Christian right's opposition to the burgeoning business of fertility medicine: Because of a rule change at President George W. Bush's Food and Drug Administration, more frozen embryos are now likely to get tossed in the dustbin in Portland and elsewhere.

The regulations, which went into effect in May 2005, require extensive tests far in advance of any tissue donation. That has angered both right-to-lifers who want to rescue unused embryos for "adoption" and the medical community that wants to keep the federal government out of reproductive health.

If that odd alliance between anti-abortion and pro-choice forces weren't enough, consider this: According to most fertility-biz watchers, the new FDA rules were inspired by a push within the conservative movement itself to get the feds to crack down on the business of making babies the new-fashioned way, presumably because it mucks around with God's work.

"The central irony here is that the political forces behind this have been focusing on the right to life...and now more embryos will be discarded because of the regulations," says David Battaglia, lab director at Oregon Health & Science University Fertility Consultants. "This is another example of the FDA becoming a political tool. It's very disturbing."


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