DoughtyOne, you are rightfully esteemed among Freerepublic with great respect among those who know you, myself included.
Did I ever mention what a superior sense of perception you have? Heh heh... Everyone would like to think your description is how folks think of them, but it is closer to the truth that some people like me, a number of people dislike me, some people respect my attempts at logic and others think I'm 49 cards short of a full deck.
Now that being said, I appreciate the comments and wish to assure you I am appropriately off balance for what is surely to come. Smile...
Yet, I must ask you about your position here. As a thought experiment, assume that it is 1954. Am I to understand your position to mean (assuming the technology had been available in 1954) that you would approve of me having being taken from my home; starved to death, or killed by oxygen starvation, and my cells then be used for some scientific experiment?
No, you should not understand my position to mean this. Will you understand my position to mean this? That is a possibility. Is that a reasonable possibility? I would like to think it isn't. It is up to you and others to decide for yourselves.
Even now, at my young 48 years of age, according to your principle of curing diseases, how long would I be "viable" outside my mother's womb without nutrition and hydration? By what principle of morality could I be kidnapped and killed by deprivation of essentials such as food or oxygen, and the predictible result be justified by the fact that I "was not viable anyway", and that my death will benefit mankind?
I believe I understand the point you are trying to make. And I don't disagree so much with the attempted comparison as the final conclusion that might be gained by it. I think you somewhat accurately address one issue I have raised, that of viability. But there are other considerations as well. I'll clumsiliy (no doubt) try to address at least part of them.
1. Is the human embryo under one week old exposed to the possibility of going to hell if it terminates? If not, then I am not convinced God evaluates it identically to that of an adult human. Do I personally think God values the human embryo? Yes I do. I will even go so far as to state that there is a distinct likelyhood that these human embryos will wind up in heaven. That being said, I think you begin to understand the serious level of thought I have given to this issue. Do I think God values the human embryo more than the curing of a human who suffers seemingly endlessly, helplessly, hopelessly? I am not convinced of it. I am also not totally convinced He doesn't.
2. Is there self-awareness of the human embryo at one week along? No.
3. Is there a sensation of pain associated with termination at that stage? No.
3. Would I approve of these human embryos advancing beyond one week outside the human female body? No.
4. Do I think God would damn those who were trying to help others by manipulating very young human embryos? I don't that's a given at all.
5. Should I approve of limited scientific research on the less than week old human embryo? I believe so.
6. Should we use this research to try to cure Parkinsons and other diseases in adults and children? I believe so.
Cordially,
190 posted on 06/19/2003 12:50 PM PDT by Diamond
I am glad you asked, but I am confident I cannot answer all of everyone's questions on this subject. I know some people are convinced this is a black and white issue and there can only be one outcome, "the right one." I am only trying to say that it may not be as black and white as some think it is."
The final conclusions regarding this are yours and the others to make as much as they are mine.
The two things regarding this issue that I am most assured of, is that sin caused this terrible dilema, and that God will end this controversey when sin is fully revealed.
Let me address the second part of your answer, since I am not an expert on Heaven and Hell;
2. Is there self-awareness of the human embryo at one week along? No.
3. Is there a sensation of pain associated with termination at that stage? No.
3. Would I approve of these human embryos advancing beyond one week outside the human female body? No.
4. Do I think God would damn those who were trying to help others by manipulating very young human embryos? I don't that's a given at all.
5. Should I approve of limited scientific research on the less than week old human embryo? I believe so.
6. Should we use this research to try to cure Parkinsons and other diseases in adults and children? I believe so.
If you will bear with a qualification of my previous thought experiment; suppose you were there in 1953, sometime around Christmas, when I began to exist. If the technology had been available, and I had begun my existence 7 days previously, would you approve if some scientist, knowing that it would kill me, removed me from my mother and used my body cells for scientific research? Further, do you believe that such an action would not only have been permissible, but should have been considered a moral obligation for those contemplating the act because they had a duty to try to cure Parkinsons and other diseases in adults and [other] children?
Cordially,