Stem-cell research is a topic that I know relatively little about, but it is a topic that is being widely discussed in many different circles. Having armed myself with as much information as I could understand, I am now choosing to muddle my way through the issue.
On one hand, stem cell research has been likened to a life or death battle in which it would be irrational not to arm ourselves with the most effective weapons and military knowledge. On the other hand, it is a moral battle that supports the destruction of days-old beings for the sake of (what is at this stage) experimentation.
When stem cells are taken from an embryo, the embryo is destroyed. Many feel that this is nothing short of murder, and I am rather inclined to agree. I feel that life begins from the moment of conception...and whether that embryo is the remnants of an abortion or whether it was created at a fertility clinic, it is still the beginning of a human being. The counter attack for this argument is whether it is more ethical to save what will ultimately be a dead embryo, or save the life of a man with Parkinson's or a child with diabetes. Certainly, the larger crime would seem to be the unnecessary death of an individual for the sake of a fertility clinic embryo that will merely be discarded, anyway. From this angle, I can see the sense in stem cell research. But from this angle only. As much as I disagree with it, abortion is not going to end. If the discarded remains from abortion and fertility clinics can be put to use instead of being trashed, at least some good can come out of what is otherwise senseless waste. But. That begins to pave the way for the creation of embryos for the sole purpose of harvesting stem cells. This is absolutely unethical and seems borderline science fiction. From there, how far do people continue pushing the envelope? At what point do we start cloning humans for spare body parts?
Sure, it seems far-fetched. But as William Saletan says in Slate Magazine, people start lying to themselves and others about what they are doing. It becomes easier and easier to brush moral dilemmas under the carpet. At what point do we lose ethics for the sake of humanity? (I'm imagining my former Eta Sigma Alpha peers debating this issue in our ethics seminar) Mr. Saletan ends his article by stating, "The stem-cell fight wasn't a fight between ideology and science. It was a fight between 5-day-olds and 50-year-olds. The 50-year-olds won. The question now is what to do with our 5-day-olds, our 5-week-olds, and our increasingly useful parts." And I suppose that's where it ends. There's nothing to be done about it, so where do we go from here?
