[Your Nightmare]

May I ask, if this exploitation of human beings at their earliest age as embryo is cannibalism (and I firmly believe it is since the human embryo is a human ORGANISM in her/his earliest age of a lifetime), and some of the world wants to do this cannibalism for medical reasons, why we in America must be herded into cannibalism also?

Cannibalism? Who has suggested we start eating embryos?

You are making a moral arguement. We were discussing the science. They are two separate issues. Don't pretend that because you believe something is immoral that the science is bad.

[MHGinTN]

The science tells us that at least one individual human being starts a lifetime to be lived, at the conception event. With cell division, it is apparent to science that at least one individual human being is expressing their ORGANISMAL life, even to the exquisite level of starting the division of cells to build his or her own placental 'space capsule' for the water world to be lived in for nine months and the blood to be circulated through his or her own constructed umbilicus. The living 'thing' doing this designation of cell lines is called an embryo, but this is indeed the same human ORGANISM who will exit the life support protection of his or her Mother in nine months time, to then live in the air world. All during that nine months, it is the same individual or individuals (in the case of twinning) who first manifested as embryonic human(s). Why would you divorce moral principles from the treatment of these youngest individuals when you would willingly apply moral principles to older individual humans?... Or would you?! I will not concede to allow some to divorce moral principles from scientific endeavors. I find it shocking that you advocating doing that, but then I do recall that there are persons in all walks of life who profess themselves to be a-moral, above fundamental moral principles, wise enough to deal with any situation from a transactional/utilitarian perspective setting moral principles aside to be defined incident by incident.

Not cannibalism? Not eating the embryos for their stem cell body parts, so this is not cannibalism? Well, to harvest the stem cells of these individual human ORGANISMS in order to try and sustain the life of older individual humans fits my understanding of cannibalism and would likley fit with the vast majority of my fellow Americans, so I'll continue to use the term with the confidence that it accurately describes the actions planned with alive embryonic human individuals.

[hocndoc]

Since when was science completely divorced from ethics? Are not morals the evidence and source of ethics?

Your statement that science and morals are separate or should be is in itself a moral statement. On what grounds do you base your moral statement, and why are your morals superior to anyone else's?

It is poor philosophy and ethics to engage in any enterprise without considering the consequences (which is itself a moral statement). If there are no morals or ethics in science, then what was wrong with Mengele's experiments or with the Chinese harvest of organs from prisoners?