01.21.07
Stem Cell Research Morality
I was reading an opinion column by Jonah Goldberg(If memory serves, he’s a “true” conservative who is both fiscally and morally conservative.) today, and he was saying something or another about science, but then talked about stem-cell research.
He compared stem-cell research to abortion, and this triggered a thought in me — the reason why being against using extra embryos for stem-cell research is immoral has very little to do with what can come out of stem-cell research; the reason why being against it is immoral is that you’re taking an embryo, which is going to be destroyed/killed/whatever regardless and saying, “Ya know. I value your life; that’s why we’re going to just throw you in the trash, rather than have your death mean something.”
Pro-life people should support stem-cell research just as much as they support organ donation by healthy people killed in accidents — you can’t bring a person back from the dead, and you can’t make a discarded embryo into a fetus.
And, of course, this argument is not terribly valid if the woman is paid to have a certain amount of embryos set aside for research purposes; There’s a reasonable moral objection there, if you’re of the belief that embryos deserve the same rights as babies.
Here’s a possible pro-life slogan:
Support embryonic stem cell research — an embryo’s life is a terrible thing to waste.