Can we oppose embryonic stem cell research on a moral basis without being called *anti-science*?
For all those who don’t have the moral compunction about killing babies, there’s also the fact that other stem cells provide promising results as well, not to mention the tumor growth reported with the embryonic cells.
Why people would still advocate for that in light of the complications even if they’re not pro-life, is beyond me.
See #9
There is plenty of potential research that's nixed because of moral concerns. It is not "anti-science" to conduct research in a moral fashion. If morality doesn't matter in science, then why have we not embraced the findings of Dr. Josef Mengele? Why are the Tuskegee experiments considered a black eye on the PHS? Concern over ethics in research is very real. Every research institution has committees who review research proposals involving human and animal subjects, to make sure those proposals are ethical and, in the case of animals, as humane as possible, before they are given the green light to proceed.
The major proponents of embryonic stem cell research are those who are trying to use potential benefits as the carrot with which to encourage people to be more supportive of abortion. Does anyone remember in the 80s, when the big push was on fetal research--on the basis that the flesh of aborted babies had big potential for curing every kind of disease? When fetal material was actually implanted into people during clinical trials, it didn't produce the miracle cures that had been touted; in fact, it caused worse problems than what it was supposed to fix.
On a purely scientific basis, I would expect embryonic stem cells to cause a lot of problems. An intact embryo is swimming in growth hormones, which are tightly regulated and controlled so that development can occur normally. Remove cells from that tightly controlled context, I would expect trouble. We know too little about the various forms of growth regulation.
As I noted, the Ancient Greeks would have created a god for this and the devotees could worship and pray to it in the open.
Christianity swept that away so rather than making a god out of our basest desires, we have to draw moral distinctions. Apparantly that sort of work is just too much for many people.