Following is an action alert from Geline Williams, VSHL Representative to the Board of the National Right to Life Committee, and also its Board Chairman, on the vital subject of human embryonic stem cell research.

July 5, 2001

Please call the White House today or as soon as possible with an urgent message for President Bush. Ask President Bush to please continue the prohibition against federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research. Such research requires the killing of a human embryo and dissecting it for harvesting its stem cells. Public funds should never be used to pay for killing a human being, no matter how small and no matter the age or stage of life. Even use of discarded embryos who might die anyway is no excuse for deliberately killing the human embryo.

Instead, public funds should be used to fund adult stem cell and umbilical cord stem cell research, a process that does no harm to the subjects involved and at the same time is already producing at a rapid pace remarkable new discoveries for cure and control of disease.

History is rife with tragic examples of barbaric cruelty and man's inhumanity to man when respect for human life and the equal dignity and sanctity for every human life have been thwarted by national policy and practice.

Your call to President Bush today is crucial because of the pressure being exerted upon him at this moment to cross the bar of public protection for the youngest stage of human life by authorizing public payment for his destruction.

The White House telephone number is : (202) 456-1414

Please follow your call to the president with a call to both Senator George Allen and Senator John Warner. Ask them to oppose and vote against the Specter-Harkin bill, S. 723. This bill would authorize federal sponsorship and funding of research that kills human embryos for the purpose of dissecting them to obtain their stem cells.

Telephone Numbers: Sen. Allen, (202) 224-4024. Sen. Warner, (202) 224-2023.

Thank you!

Note: The following e-mail addresses may also be used:

For President Bush: president@whitehouse.gov

For Senator Allen: Use web page allen.senate.gov/email.html

For Senator Warner: Senator@warner.senate.gov