Saturday, July 16, 2005

Why the garbage can?

Stem cell research has spawned many subtle philosophical and theological arguments by those on both sides of the issue. What gets lost is what is being proposed by stem cell researchers and the bill passed by the House of Representatives. The proposal is to rescue abandoned cells in fertility clinics, cells that have gone unclaimed by their prospective mothers, cells destined to be thrown in the garbage.

The question that should be answered is why it is better to throw the cells in the garbage rather than give them to scientists for medical research.

The issue never gets addressed that way, nor arguments mashalled in defense of throwing cells in the garbage.

I am hard pressed to find any argument that would justify throwing fertilized cells in the garbage rather than using them for medical research.

1 Comments:

At 4:09 PM, Blogger curtis said...

It would seem that neither option is ethically sound for those who view human embryos as persons. Simply put, they shouldn't be thrown away. Having said that, this fact doesn't impact the research end of the question, because performing research that involves destroying the embryo is, ethically, the same thing. Thus allowing them to be destroyed in research is simply making it legal to throw the embryos away in a different fashion.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home