Predictably, our congressional representative voted in favor of destroying human embryos for the hope they might someday lead to cures.
From the Argus Leader:
Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin voted for the bill and for a similar measure in January. She said the research offers tremendous prospects for new treatment of diseases. Without a coherent federal policy, research will progress inefficiently, slowly or not at all, she said.
While embryonic stem cell research has yet to see a single success story, adult stem cell therapy, which does not involve the destruction of human life, is ALREADY curing people and continues to see a stream of successes and innovations.
Why do liberals turn a blind eye to success, in favor of something that shows no success? Are they just hopelessly bound to the culture of death? Is it something they just can't help? Is it just in their nature to promote things that devalue human life and undermine human dignity?
6 comments:
"While embryonic stem cell research has yet to see a single success story..."
There are two good reasons for why embryonic stem cell research has yet to result in treatments.
1.) It's a very young research field. The first human embryonic stem cell line was only found less than 10 years ago. And research takes time. Whereas adult stem cells have been used for the last 30 years to treat conditions like leukemia and lymphoma. And I would imagine it took several years of research to get to that point. So adult stem cell treatments had a large head start.
2.) Someone won't allow federal fund to go to embryonic stem cell research. Now who could that be? Federal funds play a large role in research. So without it, they have to find other sources. And that will only add to the ammount of time it will take for embryonic stem cell research to result in viable treatments.
My point is that just because embryonic stem cell research hasn't resulted in viable treatments yet, doesn't mean it's not worth looking into. And by all means they should continue to focus on adult stem cells because they have gotten a lot of great results and are able to help a lot of people with them.
I just don't like to see embryonic research discarded. I think it has a lot of potential to help people too.
Embryonic stem cell research hasn't been outlawed (which it should be); it has enjoyed private funding.
However, we should not pursue research which sacrifices human life and human dignity...especially when other alternatives are ALREADY providing what we're looking for.
Right, I wasn't saying that it had been outlawed. Sorry if my meaning was unclear. And yes, it enjoys private funding, but I'm just saying that federal funding would be great as well.
And I'm also well aware of your concerns about the research resulting in the destruction of fertilized eggs. I personally believe that the potential this research has to help people suffering from illness far outweighs the cost to those cells. Especially since the cells they use would just be thrown out at fertilization clinics anyway.
I personally believe Christ has called us to follow his lead. And I do that by supporting both ministries and scientific research that are geared toward helping the sick. Just like Christ helped the sick.
Also, just because one method of research is current bearing fruit doesn't mean that we should ignore all other alternatives. Until it is proven that adult stem cells will lead to more/better treatments than embryonic, I believe research should continue. If embryonic stem cell research reveals that they aren't as good as adult cells, I will concede. But it will require research to do that.
I have nothing against pursuing all promising medical leads...as long as they don't cheapen or end human life, as embryonic stem cell research does. It destroys an embryonic human being with DNA that is unique to every other human being in the world.
Christ doesn't give us points for helping the sick that we can redeem in exchange for taking life that was created in his image.
There is plenty of promise from adult stem cell research without transgressing God's laws.
Okay, fair enough. Thank you for the nice, civil discussion and I hope you have a great weekend.
You too!
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