Right to Life

I believe the Declaration clearly defines the importance of the “right to life” when it listed it first in the list of the three basic rights.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Without the right to life, no other right matters. The important question becomes how does the Constitution address the issue of abortion.

Right to Privacy

The original Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade was based on the idea of the U.S. Constitution having a “right to privacy.” As constitutional lawyer Mark Levin explains:

“Today, legalized abortion is the law of the land because the Supreme Court decided in 1973 that its recently created constitutional right to privacy also included a new constitutional right to abortion. If you look in the Constitution, however, you will find no general “right to privacy” any more than you will find a right to abortion — and for good reason: It’s not there. The framers assumed no general right to privacy because, to state the obvious, criminal and evil acts can be committed in privacy. Criminal codes are full of such examples — from murder to incest to rape and other crimes.” (Source: Death by Privacy, 3/14/2005)

Protecting Life

One solution would be to enact legislation that would reinforce the states’ right under the U.S. Constitution to decide this issue.

However, since the right to life is guaranteed in our Constitution and since the courts have chosen to ignore this most basic right for the unborn, the only way to give the federal government power to act on the right to life or abortion issue is through an amendment to the Constitution. Otherwise, it remains and issue for each states’ legislature. I am in favor of a Constitutional amendment that protects the life of an unborn child except if the life of the mother is clearly in jeopardy.  Human life should be protected from conception until natural death.

Moreover, I believe that no American should ever be forced to pay for abortions or abortion-related services, whether in the United States or abroad.  Abortion providers like Planned Parenthood should not be funded with tax dollars.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research

No moral society can justify the deliberate taking of one life for the benefit of another. To do so, cheapens the value of life in that society. Purposely killing embryos to use their stem cells in research is morally and ethically wrong. Shall we begin using the disabled or the insane as test subjects? What about harvesting organs from condemned criminals? The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics (www.stemcellresearch.org) concluded its report, On Human Embryos and Stem Cell Research, with the following statement:

"If anything can be gained from the cruel atrocities committed against human beings in the last century and a half, it is the lesson that the utilitarian devaluation of one group of human beings for the alleged benefit of others is a price we simply cannot afford to pay."

I will support legislative measures to protect embryos and embryonic stem cells from being used in experimentation.

Adult Stem Cell Research

The scientific community is finding great success using adult stem cells in their research. And these stem cells can be used without killing or injuring the patient or donor. To read more, visit the web site www.stemcellresearch.org.