Obama to fund more destruction of human life

[targus]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/02/AR2009120201955_pf.html

"The Obama administration has begun approving new lines of human embryonic stem cells that are eligible for federally funded experiments, opening the way for millions of taxpayer dollars to be used to conduct research that was put off-limits by President George W. Bush."

"Now, although embryonic stem cell lines will still have to be created using private funding, federal funding will be permitted for experiments using a much larger array of lines, once those lines have been scrutinized to make sure they were created from embryos obtained ethically."

From embryos obtained ethically? :laugh: What morons !!

"That will vastly expand the number of scientists and types of experiments using taxpayer dollars."

El Presidentie continues his death march. :tear:

 

[donnA]

"embryos" are human children, they are talking about murdering a child in order to experiment on them, obama is certainly the president of death, death of our children, death of our seniors. And murderous dems stand right with him, even christians.

 

[Johnv]

This is one area where, although I oppose embryonic stem cell research, the problem is that the embryos have already been created, and are being stored. Even if elective abortion is made illegal, that fact won't change, and those lives will be lost.

The way to combat embryonic stem cell research is to change the legislation regarding the storage and disposition of embryos.

 

[preachinjesus]

The issue is more involved than most evangelicals want to make it.

By ethically obtained they mean embryonic stem cells largely taken from lines developed by families utilizing in vitro fertilization. These embryoes are sitting in refrigeration units and will never be used by the families who initially paid for their development. They will not exist forever and will not be viable after a certain time.

Now I'm not a fan of using embryoes for stem cell research. It is lazy science imho. Adult stem cells taken from other sources have the potential to be just as reliable, and in many cases have been. The ethical questions outweigh the benefits in my view. Of course I am not strapped in a wheelchair because of a condition that could be corrected by this kind of research.

All that to say the argument is more complex than most Christian realize. What are you going to do with the in vitro lines in existence? Are you just going to let them waste away? I don't believe there will be a mansion of embryoes in Heaven. What do we do with them?

A scientist friend of mine once compared his inability to help people with disabilities to watching a terrorist killing thousands of people with you standing next to him, begging to be able shoot him but not being given permission. Its deeply frustrating on all sides imho.

 

[rbell]

making these "embryos" a commodity worsens the problem.

Isn't that obvious?

 

[Johnv]

Whether they're a commodity or not in thie sense isn't going to change the fact that they're going to be destroyed, either via use in research, via loss of viability, or by being allowed to expire. They only way to change that is to mitigate their creation.

 

[rbell]

Whether they're a commodity or not in thie sense isn't going to change the fact that they're going to be destroyed, either via use in research, via loss of viability, or by being allowed to expire. They only way to change that is to mitigate their creation.

I agree. But once we make "embryos" a "commodity," it becomes impossible to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

 

[Johnv]

I agree. But once we make "embryos" a "commodity," it becomes impossible to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Dunno about that. It's always possible to undo something. We in CA overturned a ruling that allowed gay marriage. The prohibition amendment was instituted, then repealed. And separate but equal was instituted, and then got reversed. So it's not unreasonable to think that this issue can be combated by mitigating the creation of embryos rather than trying to change policy or embryos already created.

 

[Gold Dragon]

making these "embryos" a commodity worsens the problem.

Isn't that obvious?

I agree with you here rbell. I also agree with Johnv and preachinjesus that this issue is not an easy one to wrap our ethical fingers around.

We need to be careful that allowing more embryos for research does not result in the creation of more embryos caught in this situation.

In NSW, Australia, IVF is funded publicly so there are more restrictions (usually financially motivated) of how many embryos it is appropriate to create and store in any one case. However, public funding also means more IVF in total and more unused embryos created and then ultimately destroyed.

My potential concern is that in private IVF where there are little to no regulation, allowing more embyros for research will tempt the private IVF people to see that as a profit line and encourage families to create more embryos than they need.