Washington, DC -- The families of three children born from frozen embryos
said Monday that President Bush should see the toddlers before he makes a
decision on stem cell research.

As President Bush wrangles with a decision about whether taxpayers must
fund life-destroying embryonic stem cell research, two-year-old Hannah
Strege and her parents traveled from their home in California to
Washington, D.C. this week to show President Bush and Congress that
embryos "left over" from in-vitro fertilization can become children
instead of research subjects.

"I was listening to C-SPAN [where] Sen. [Tom] Harkin (D-IA) said that my
daughter was nothing more than a dot on a piece of paper," said Hannah's
mother, Marlene Strege, a 42-year-old occupational therapist, who spoke at
a Capital Hill press conference on Monday.

The Streges adopted Hannah as an embryo in 1997 after fertility treatments
failed to produce a pregnancy for Marlene.

"I cried," said Strege, recalling her reaction to Harkin's words. "My
husband came home and I said, 'Well, our little dot just put Winnie the
Pooh in the toilet today.'"

Strege is slated to testify at a congressional hearing Tuesday to explore
the ethical and legal issues surrounding the federal funding of embryonic
stem cell research.

Lucinda and John Borden also think they could sway the president with Luke
and Mark, a pair of lively 9 1/2 month olds. (For a picture, email the
Pro-Life Infonet at infonet@prolifeinfo.org)

The parents argue that if Bush approves federal money for the research,
more of the tiny unborn children will be destroyed for science instead of
adopted by infertile couples.

``We want him to look into our children's eyes,'' said Lucinda Borden, who
received the children through a Christian adoption agency based in
Fullerton, Calif. The boys were born after the embryos were implanted in
Lucinda, 36, of Fontana, Calif.

``Hannah, Luke and Mark give the debate over stem cell research three
beautiful faces,'' said Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), a noted pro-life lawmaker
who'd rather see federal money spent on adult stem cell research. "Adult
stem cells are a legitimate alternative to research that destroys human
embryos, [but] the only way to justify embryo-destructive work is to
assert that Hannah" added Smith.

The three children were adopted through the Snowflakes Embryo Adoption
Program.

Smith wants to create a $30 million annual fund that would support
research on stem cells extracted from youth and adult tissue, fat cells
and other alternatives to human embryos.

Though Congress in 1996 passed a law banning federal funding of such
research, the Clinton Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
interpreted the ban to mean that federal funding was allowable so long as
embryos were obtained using private funds.

After undertaking a review of the Clinton rule, President Bush is now
dealing with the thorny ethical question of how his administration will
balance the interests of embryonic research foes on one side and groups
representing researchers and people with chronic and terminal diseases on
the other.

But even Bush's decision, politically risky either way he turns, is
unlikely to end the matter. The Christian Legal Society has a pending
lawsuit challenging the policy. Also, legislators in Congress who favor
embryonic stem cell research funding say they will draft legislation to
allow it.

Moreover, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), who has upset pro-life advocates with
his support for embryonic stem cell research, has said that he thinks the
Senate could muster the necessary 60 votes to overturn a presidential veto
of legislation to allow stem cell funding.

Even though embryonic stem cell research supporters say such research is
needed to cure numerous diseases, Ken Connor, president of the Family
Research Council, believes that medical need is not a justification for
making taxpayers fund research that destroys human embryos.

"There's a statement lawyers learn in law school that says ...'hard cases
make bad law,'" said Connor. "There's no question about the fact that
there are many difficult [and] sad cases which cry out for relief [and]
help."

He added, "But I would defy Senators [Arlen] Specter (R-Pa.) and Hatch to
take these three children [produced through embryo adoption] in their arms
and tell us which ones of these children should have been sacrificed on
the altar of scientific experimentation in pursuit of what is at best an
elusive goal."

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