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February 24, 2007

Justifying Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Plenty of lawmakers have a personal stake in the debate over stem cell research - a sick child hoping for a cure, a parent suffering from Alzheimer's, a friend with diabetes. (Illinois Senate approves research on embryonic stem cells)

Sen. Linda Holmes: It's extremely personal, and I think it has to be extremely personal for most of us...

Sen. Chris Lauzen (Aurora) brings some sanity to the issue. "Obviously we all want cures to diseases," He said. "The question is, what are willing to sacrifice to get them?"

He's right. I might benefit immensely from a therapeutic treatment that is developed by killing human embryos but how does that justify the research or establish the morality of the action? I know my position is not popular, especially since the media has hyped ESC into a virtual certainty despite the obvious and well documented challenges. Yet, the purposeful destruction of a human cannot be accepted as either moral or logical on the basis of a potential and speculative "cure" (where have we heard hype over a "cure" before?).

Posted by Diabetologica at February 24, 2007 3:29 PM