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| Dear Sirs: It is imperative that you listen to the voice of the American people in this most important issue of vaccine production. We are vehemently against the use of human embryos in the creation of vaccines. It is immoral and unethical, and intrinsically unacceptable. It will offend the dignity of the human life which we all enjoy and take for granted, and it will result in a decline in the number of vaccines which people will consent to be given. Since there are available alternatives to this manner of cultivating vaccines, it is absurd to consider that it be continued. This insidious procedure of using live embryo tissue and/or embryo cadavers to generate vaccines which will be injected or ingested by other humans must be stopped. It is a direct threat to the defense of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" it assigns a utilitarian role to a certain segment of the human population in order to benefit other segments; it is therefore un-American in nature and contrary to the principles upon which this country was founded. To continue the use of embryos in the generation of viral vaccines is to jeopardize the stability of the very framework upon which our great nation is built. It will lead to an avalanche of assaults against our human dignity in countless ways not imagined by those scientists practicing the research and proposing its expansion; it will jeopardize the freedom of all of us and our children. When we pursue the honorable goal of serving our citizens in assisting in the fight against disease and health threats, let us not forget our original and primary goal: to live a life of liberty and decency, advancing, growing, and pursuing happiness, while respecting the rights of all others in that same pursuit, regardless of their circumstances or stage of life. Let us honorably live, and let us honorably defend those in need of defense; let us destroy or dishonor no fellow human in the pursuit of any of our goals. For honorable though our goals be, they are instantly secondary to the right of our fellow man to live, and when they intrude upon that right, they are heinous and tyrannical.
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