Our president authorized federal funding for embryonic stem cell research (escr) today. Oh, that is just wonderful! I'll be looking for the cure to my dermatillamania next week.
Think of it! Escr holds so much promise that even though it's been legal for private companies to conduct it, they have demurred, saying, "No, it's too important for us to do, we'll wait for the gov't to fund it, so they can have the glory"! That's a direct quote (more or less).
It must suck to have a serious disease. I am thankful I do not have that cross to bear. But if I did, would I advocate destroying life to potentially cure my disease? God I hope not. It's impossible for me to really know what it's like to live with a debilitating disease, so I can't stand in judgement, but somewhere along the way I have to accept that I'm going to die of my last ailment.
So we have to cut our losses somewhere. Sure, maybe experimenting on 10 year old children would lead to all kinds of advances and cures and life would be wonderful, no disease, no pain, no suffering, yet, somehow, I still think we'd end up dying. Where would it leave us? Living a few more extra years here, which is a minute fraction of eternity, after hurting, injuring, and destroying something else.
Is escr necessary? Aren't they making advances with adult stem cells? Why aren't the big evil pharmaceutical companies studying embryonic stem cells if there is so much potential (oh, wait, they want us to be sick so we have to buy drugs). Where does life begin? I'm not sure, but I'm not going to take any chances.
Oh, and yes, I do believe people ought to think about what they're doing before a bunch of eggs are fertilized without being spoken for.
