Stem Cells -- Kill them All

Clinton left this comment on the post from a few days back on stem cells. My main point was that turning embryonic stem cells into cures would require more than "spare embryos"--most likely, it would involved the mass production of fresh or frozen embryos.

Here's Clinton's reply:


Let's conceive millions of lives and then kill them all to try and save millions of lives. No dilema here.
Clinton 10.05.04 - 12:17 am | #



Now there's a honest response. But not one that's likely to come from many proponents of embryonic stem cell research, at least those with a public profile.

Though a number of religious groups, most recently the United Methodist Church, have issued statements in support of stem cell research, the lynchpin of the support has been the use of "spare embryos." Creating embryos specifically for research is something most groups, including the Methodists, have condemned.

The whole dynamic of the debate would change if more researchers and embryonic stem cell research advocates would simple be honest and drop the "spare embryos" argument and admit that cloned embryos or new embryos made specifically for research would be needed.

(Robert Lanza and Nadia Rosenthal basically admitted this in a Scientific American article this past summer.)