The real trouble with the anti-embryonic-stem-cell-research argument is that it’s based on an argument that was decided a quarter century ago.
IVF (currently) can only maximize the possibility of fertilization if many embryos are created for potential implantation. However, it is unlikely that the mother would wish every embryo created to be implanted.
Therefore, once treatment is done, clinics are left with embryos, most of which are discarded.
With the discovery of stem cells and their importance in tissue development, there is at last a reason to keep these unused embyros around.
Now opponents of the research wish to turn back the clock 25 years. If they believe, as they say they do, that life begins at conception, then every unused microscopic ball of embryonic cells has the same rights as the mother, if not more.
If they have their way, and get legisation, Supreme Court decisions, or, Og help us, an amendment passed stating that life begins at conception, then fertility clinics will be forced to maintain freezing systems for an ever-growing number of unused cells (at whose expense?) or shut down. The discarding of these embryos could suddenly become a criminal murder offense.
In any event, you would expect to see the operation of a fertility clinic become a highly unattractive proposition in this country, and couples who could not afford to go abroad to conceive would be forced to remain childless.
Fortunately, Bush obviously does not believe in his heart that life begins at conception. If he did, he would never in a million years have countenanced continuing research into stem cell lines from embryos already destroyed, as they would, by any logic, be fruit of the poison tree (assuming of course that we can take at face value his claims to have a deeply stubborn moralism at the core of his stalwart character ).
Those who thought he DID believe that life begins at birth will have to admit that they believed an untruth as a result of some claims Bush has made in the past.
But, then, that’s par for the course now, isn’t it?