So - How do you get a Stem Cell?

Fetus Stem Cell Research is one of those moral dilemmas like abortion, and it is current in the Senate. How do you get a Fetus Stem Cell? Is a fetus a human? Is abortion “right” or “wrong” – and are there situations that change its context? Hmmm

The discussion currently going on in the Senate really isn’t about whether Stem Cell research should be done or whether it will ever amount to anything more than a waste of time, effort, and money – but really about how we get the stem cells used in the research. And so this post is only about how we get stem cells for research -- whether that research has any merit would be a whole different post. I have a couple of thoughts about how we get stem cells:

The argument that the aborted fetus should not be used for Stem Cell Research held by the Church simply makes no sense to me on the grounds that it is not consistent with other Church Positions and Beliefs. It lacks faith in Humans to do what is “right”.
Church: We can’t use an aborted fetus for stem cell research because the Church considers a fetus to be human, and we can’t kill a human….
Reply: The Church has no problem with transplants from born people who have been killed… The Church has no concern that someone will kill someone to get transplant organs. I feel the doctor discussions that could happen, “this person has been so badly damaged there is zero chance of survival, and Luke over there will die in hours without a new heart – so, let’s pronounce this guy dead now and take the heart”. Would that be wrong – absolutely, yet I believe it is a much more plausible scenario to harvest from someone you don’t even know, than to terminate your own personal fetus so it can be harvested for research…
Church: Someone will get pregnant, just to abort the fetus so it can be used for research purposes.
Reply: If the Church does not believe people will kill other people to harvest transplant organs, why does it believe women will get pregnant and or abort fetuses just for research? Does the Church have no understanding of how difficult it is for a Mother to abort a fetus? I would say aborting a her own fetus just for research purposes would be a WAY more difficult thing for a woman to do than doctors killing people with whom they have no personal connection to get transplant organs…and therefore would be way more rare of an occurrence.

Next is the new concept some have come up with to get around the abortion issue – when artificial insemination is done, several eggs are test tube fertilized in the lab -- but only one is used to implant back into the mother. The rest are wasted, thrown away. So, we should use those wasted eggs for stem cell research, because they have no chance of survival anyway…so they might is well get used for some good. Notice, they are very careful not to call those fertilized eggs fetuses?
Let me point out the fallacy of this argument….I had a friend years ago who worked for McDonalds. They had to throw away all the hamburgers, etc. left over at closing – can’t sell them tomorrow. So, the boss decided to me a nice guy and tell the employees – hey, you can take home whatever is left at closing. Sounds like sound policy – don’t waste food. So, the employees started making a big batch of whatever they liked just before closing – and then taking home the “leftovers”. The boss soon had to end the take home policy, or go bankrupt. So, how many “extra” eggs do you need to fertilize for an artificial insemination? If this thought process passes, LOTS, THOUSANDS, MILLIONS – after all, they won’t go to waste.

To me, the dilemma is the same. An egg fertilized in a test tube is just as much of a fetus as the one in a woman is. In fact, I wonder how they get away with fertilizing several with the intent of only keeping one to begin with – seems they should be fertilizing one, and if it does not take, then fertilizing another…rather than creating lives they know will just be terminated.

So, if you ask me – and granted, nobody has – which is part of the reason I started this BLOG – so I can say my piece even though nobody asked me….If stem cell research is going to happen, I trust the mothers of this world to not create life just to provide fetus’s for research WAY MORE than I trust lab technicians at fertility clinics. So, I vote for using aborted fetuses rather than test tube fetuses.

Pete