[jlogajan]

Does that mean medical ethics is not a viable constraint in your opinion?

I think we all know this discussion is limited to the question of stem cell research -- which is opposed on strictly religious grounds.

[Askel5]

stem cell research -- which is opposed on strictly religious grounds.

Get serious. It's a scientific FACT that life begins at conception and that the entire genetic package is complete.

Barring a life's being frozen alive, chemically prevented from implanted or surgically dismembered and killed, that human life lives until its natural death.

Either all men are created equal or they are not. There is nothing "religious" about it ... save perhaps your Faith in your Personal Opinion about when a human life is really worth living.

In this respect -- your ability to judge what lives are fully human and what lives are subhuman; which lives are worth living and which lives are not worth living -- indeed you share the same philosophy as the Austrians and Germans who gassed the feeble and the Jews, as well as the Germans and Japanese who vivisected their POW "logs" alive.

[sarasmom]

I do not agree that the stem cell research debate is strictly a bastion of religious constraint. I do not view it as a particularly "religious" bastion of debate.

I see it as ethics based. I also see that those who approach it from a religious standpoint are not automatically wrong, just because of their starting point.

I do think we are not even close to a general agreement among thoughtfull people as to the basic ethics of this research.

That is not a religious belief on my part.That it is, on many other peoples part, in no way negates the underlying questions regarding this type of research.IMHO it only adds weight to the severity of dispute as to the ethical aspects.

It is a mistake to completely ignore religion when considering ethics.IMHO that is like ignoring gravity.Religion does not drive this debate, but none should be afraid of it "weighing in" on this topic. Ethics has never been an enemy of religion. Religion has never been an enemy of ethics.

To exclude either in medical and/or scientific research is ignorant and inexcusable.

[carenot]

I think we all know this discussion is limited to the question of stem cell research -- which is opposed on strictly religious grounds.

No, it is limited to FETAL stem-cell research. And that is murder.

[F.J. Mitchell]

"Which is opposed on strictly religious grounds."

THat is the same big lie used by pro-abortionists. Fact is that creating babies for the purpose of mining their tissues and organs-or even using those aborted for the convinence of the irresponsible, is opposed because we are humans and humans, whether athiests, ignostics or the religious, all are endowed with an inner compass that demands fair treatment and respect for the totally innocent and helpless-this is what separates us from Ghouls, monsters and savage beasts.

[jwalsh07]

I think we all know this discussion is limited to the question of stem cell research -- which is opposed on strictly religious grounds.

Thank God for religion then.