A pair of senators, Vipatisan, have expressed concern about a proposal to remove the phrase “extending life” from the National Institutes of Health's mission statement.
NIH's mission statement Currently, it is written as “the pursuit of fundamental knowledge of the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to promote health, extend lifespan, and reduce disease and disability.'' Masu. but, was suggested The new mission statement reads, “To pursue fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and apply that knowledge to optimize health and prevent or reduce disease for all people.” .
among them letter NIH Director Monica Bertagnoli, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, and Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois raised the issue of physician-assisted suicide.
“With increasing openness to physician-assisted suicide in some countries, such as Canada and the Netherlands, and in a few states, removing the life-prolonging goals articulated in the NIH's mission statement without explanation or justification is , has a negative impact on people's existing attitudes towards the quality of life of people with disabilities.People with disabilities have the right to be treated with the same dignity and respect as people without disabilities, but they have a negative impact on the quality of life of people with disabilities. Stereotypes and prejudice continue to prevent that from happening, and people with disabilities are denied access to the care they need, when they need it,” the lawmakers said in the letter.
The senators asked several questions, including what was the motivation behind the proposal to remove the words “extending life” from the mission statement.
2022 report The Director's Advisory Committee Working Group on Diversity, Disability Subgroup recommended that NIH remove references to disability from its mission statement. “The current mission statement could be interpreted as perpetuating the ableist belief that people with disabilities are flawed and need to be ‘fixed,’” the report states. The report does not take issue with the phrase “extending life” in the mission statement.
Do you like Blaze News? Avoid censorship and sign up for our newsletter to get articles like this delivered straight to your inbox. Please register here!
