Going back further, the same religious principals also inspired opposition to organ transplants and blood transfusions; before that, the Catholic Church strictly forbade any forensic scientific research, necessitating the need to dissect cadavers for medical education entirely in secret (Levine, 2008).
Just as the news media are partially at fault today for their failure to distinguish legitimate concerns from ludicrous fears in connection with the ongoing political debate over American healthcare, they are equally responsible for allowing unfounded fears of "human cloning" in connection with the beneficial uses of stem cell science. Specifically, the main source of secular opposition to stem cell research is attributable to unnecessary fears of rampant misuse of human cloning technology to clone human beings. While human cloning is hypothetically possible, no responsible scientific researcher would ever misuse current biomedical technology in that fashion. The complexities of cloning entire organisms have been well documented in animal experiments and substantial technical obstacles remain before anybody reputable would consider human experimentation of this nature for that reason alone (Levine, 2008; Tong, 2007).
Objective Ethical Analysis:
The principle reasons that doctrinal objection to stem cell research is inappropriate are (1) it is logically flawed and (2) it contradicts the fundamental concept of separation of church and state embodied in the First Amendment to the Constitution (Dershowitz, 2002). First, the religious-based belief that human life begins at conception is entirely subjective and incapable of being articulated (much less proven) in objective logical concepts and definitions. Second, while the U.S. Constitution specifically guarantees the right to maintain any religious beliefs without apology or justification, the same concept and constitutional provision also precludes religious beliefs from influencing public policy or secular law (Dershowitz, 2002).
Secular scientists do not claim to know precisely when a viable human embryo first becomes a person, partly because it is impossible to pinpoint exactly when specific human characteristics emerge and partly because embryonic and fetal development occurs in gradual stages rather than in sudden transformations. On the other hand, there is absolutely no logical justification for treating an embryo as a human being entitled to human rights at specific stages of development where any semblance of personhood can be definitively ruled out.
The fundamental argument predicated on the personhood of the embryo completely ignores the realities at the stages of development where the question is most easily answered. For example, in the earliest phase of human gestation, the fertilized ovum undergoes mitosis and splits into two cells, then four, eight, and so on. The religious doctrine that is responsible for the supposed "moral" objection to embryonic stem cell research maintains that any clump of four or eight undifferentiated individual human cells is already a person. That is strictly a religious position rather than a logical position; in fact, it would be impossible even for those adamantly holding that view to identify any small clump of fertilized cells in a Petri dish as human or nonhuman.
Moreover, no such protection applies to the thousands of IVF embryos created and then either frozen or destroyed as medical waste. In that regard, it seems logically and ethically incongruous that it be permissible to create excess human embryos in the IVF process only to discard or freeze them while it is impermissible to make beneficial use out those same embryos. In fact, the main controversy over stem cell research is precisely that it does not involve "cloning" human beings or even creating human tissue any further along than is already permitted in connection with other routine medical procedures.
The ideal source of embryonic stem cells are the embryos already in existence by the thousands in IVF clinics. Regardless of whether they are discarded as medical waste or authorized by the donors for use as a source of embryonic stem cells, neither results in the continued development of that tissue into the fetal stages of development. Certainly, by specific stages of fetal gestation, the issue of personhood does begin to arise legitimately. By "legitimate" one means simply that it is possible to articulate an objective basis for recognizing personhood: examples of logically objective bases for recognizing personhood would include sentience as well as brain waves. Regardless of the specific criteria, to qualify as legitimate they must be capable of objective description and cannot rely on any a priori religious beliefs defining human life or its supposed value in the embryonic stage. The U.S. Constitution provides both the right to maintain religious beliefs as well as the same right to live free from interference from the religious beliefs of others. Acquiescence on the part of political representative to opposition rooted in religious dogma violates that concept of religious freedom.
Potential...
The media might present an issue as fact without verifying its truth via the appropriate channels, while the public in turn is eager to accept as fact what is presented to them, as this is much more simple than researching the issues themselves, or even simply verifying the truth of a stated fact. Furthermore, the authors hold that simply educating the public regarding issues of scientific controversy is far
In utilitarianism, the focus is on outcomes, or the ends of an action; in deontology the actions themselves must be ethical and moral, or the outcome is moot. Deontology argues that there are norms and truths that are universal for all humans; actions then have a predisposition to right or wrong, moral or immoral. Kant believed that humans should act, at all times, as if their individual actions would
Unfortunately, these undifferentiated cells cannot be harvested or removed from an adult because an adult's cells have already matured. Once matured, cells can't be overwritten to become another type of cell. but, embryonic cells are technically at a stage of growth where they are clearly cells but they have not yet reached a stage of becoming a specialized cell. Therefore, the stem cells can still be rewritten or redirected so
(Condic, 31) Scientists visualize immeasurable value in the application of embryonic stem cell research to comprehend human growth and the development and healing of ailments. More than 100 million Americans are ailing from the diseases that subsequently might be dealt more successfully or even cured with embryonic stem cell procedure. Majority of the researchers consider stem cell research as having large prospects for healing human ailments ever since the
Stem Cells Without a doubt, one of the most controversial topics of popular discourse is stem cell research. Indeed, one would be hard pressed to peruse the newspaper or magazine stand without encountering some reference to the global stem cell debate -- but what, exactly, are stem cells, and why are they so controversial? Stem cells intended for use in human applications are harvested from humans, umbilical cords and embryos. The reason
In collaboration with University of Wisconsin physician-scientists, Thomson has subsequently demonstrated the developmental potential of human embryonic stem cells in lineage-specific differentiation, such as blood, trophoblast, neural tissue and heart (James). Currently his focus is directed on understanding how embryonic stem cells can "form any cell in the body, how an ES cell chooses between self-renewal and the initial decision to differentiate, and how a differentiated cell with limited
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