Science and Religion Three-Way Blog

Stem cell research is one of those sticky subjects that don’t quite have clear right and wrong sides for most people. The trouble with this debate is that nobody can really tell when life begins, and if it does begin at “conception,” is it worth it to knock off a bunch of pre-infants to cure humanity of a disease? Is that even possible? It is my opinion, if it is possible, that we should make that sacrifice if we are to advance medically as a society. I’ve never bought into the “slippery slope” argument, that some of my classmates put forth, that implies that the moment we allow the “killing” of embryos for research, we will start farming infants and killing them off one-by-one. The whole “brave new world” scenario doesn’t hold any water because it completely disregards the fact that humans will continue to have morals and a clearly drawn line over which our society cannot step. That line may oscillate from time to time, but it certainly doesn’t move all the way back to the point of murder or a fellow human being in the name of science. By using that argument, they are essentially saying that if they give this up now, they can’t say what they will give up in the future, which is a ridiculous comment because the “slippery slope” is lined with crevasses of uncertainty over which only extrapolation and leaps of logic can take a person.

I think I most closely agree with the Episcopal Church and their “conservative and balanced approach,” of understanding the medical value of the research, but not farming life for the research specifically. Women are going to have abortions, and a certain number of them are going to want to have those embryos used for research, so I don’t see a problem with using them. I think the position of our government should also be that we should allow for the research of already-discarded embryos, but we should not farm them. I think it also holds true logically that it is not as if women are going to go out and get pregnant more often and have more abortions if the final result means donating the embryo to research. The moral dilemmas still exist for the woman, and having an abortion is not a fun time, so I don’t think there will suddenly be a mad rush to have them to start us down our “slippery slope.” The biggest opponents of this idea would essentially be most of the fundamentalist Christian groups, the Catholic Church, and the Greek Orthodox Church. The Southern Baptists would probably continue their “enduring, consistent, and vigorous opposition” to most of my opinions on the matter, which is their right because they believe the embryo to be a life based on their reading of the Bible, a religious text. Our government, however, should take a secular stance on the issue and hold true the ideas of the “social contract” and not do things like kill fellow human beings who are alive and conscious, but use all other means to attain the ends that will help us, namely curing diseases.