WHAT’S ALL THIS FUSS ABOUT?
Today I watched an episode of “Nova” dealing, among other things, with embryonic stem cell research. The science behind it is incredibly interesting but the controversy surrounding it seems to stop all kinds of real progress. A number of people have various ethical and moral issues with the whole idea of embryonic stem cells. Something I must say I find extremely difficult to understand…
According to The National Institutes of Health, embryonic stem cells are cells “derived from embryos that develop from eggs that have been fertilized in vitro […] and then donated for research purposes with informed consent of the donors. They are not derived from eggs fertilized in a woman’s body. The embryos from which human embryonic stem cells are derived are typically four or five days old”. After that, the needed cells are removed from the embryo and the embryo itself is destroyed.
I guess that is where the problem lies. Many people say it is murdering embryos, which in their eyes are early human beings. However, an embryo is really just a bunch of cells that started to grow and develop together and it is a far cry to a human being, for God’s sake! How can anyone put ‘murder’ and ‘embryo’ in the same sentence is simply beyond me.
And to think that some of the amazing possibilities in developing healthy cells that could fight incurable diseases are thwarted by narrow-minded people, afraid of the change and the science that would bring it about. Unfortunately, various churches and religions have been known (for centuries) for their zeal in stopping the progress of science (remember the Great Inquisition?). And those circles seem to be the main force behind this whole controversy surrounding the embryonic stem cell research.
I, for one, am not opposed to it, quite contrary, even though I am not quite sure as far as cloning is concerned (although even with this field of science all I probably need is a bit more information to make the picture clearer)… So the next few years will most likely be quite interesting to watch.
Oh, yes! We live in fascinating times….