Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Disenchanted

The most difficult thing, for me, about the recent change in regulations regarding embryonic stem cell research is the public reaction.

If you check out the comments on various media stories that came out yesterday, they're overwhelmingly along the lines of "Finally! Now science can move forward!"

CNN

It very much disturbs me that most people don't even see how this could possibly be a problem, how it could be anything but a good thing.

I never thought I'd see the day when I wouldn't want science to move forward, but when scientific progress becomes synonymous with "killing innocents," I become very skeptical about science.

All of the sudden (or maybe not so suddenly. . .) human beings are viewed as tools, as a means to an end rather than goods in themselves.

And don't try to tell me they're not human. If they're not human, let's just sidestep the ethical quandary by using guinea pig embryos, why don't we? Try to object to that without insisting that the embryos have to be human for stem-cell research to work.

Necessarily lethal medical experimentation on subjects who can't consent. People as a means to an end. Killing the innocent. Who thinks this is okay?

3 comments:

  1. Hi Scarlett!

    I saw your post over a Faith + Family - I have been married 1.5 years and we used NFP. A great website to check out is www.ovusoft.com - it might be a bit more helpful than some of the literature put out by the Church, which could be a little theology-ridden for your boyfriend! Let me know if you have any questions - I'd be glad to help!

    Secondly, my mom is OBSESSED with Gone With the Wind, and actually named me and three of my siblings after it! :)

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  2. Nothing wrong with using embryos with permission that would otherwise be destroyed to improve the health of the sentient living. Better than the waste of "innocents". But for the record, blastocyst/zygotes/embryos/fetuses/babies are not innocent - they're amoral. They have no capacity for good or evil because they have no reference point.

    But see, this is why we shouldn't allow the science illiterate to write science legislation. If you don't like it, feel free to refuse all medical treatment where the research came from unwitting human subjects. I'd rather have embryos without purpose than the prison population, impoverished racial minority women, or poor people abroad subjected to such experiments. Have some perspective.

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