{"id":2376,"date":"2010-09-02T07:06:14","date_gmt":"2010-09-02T11:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nicholsclan.com\/tinblog\/?p=2376"},"modified":"2010-11-24T09:43:20","modified_gmt":"2010-11-24T14:43:20","slug":"stemming-the-federal-stem-cell-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/2010\/09\/stemming-the-federal-stem-cell-ruling.html","title":{"rendered":"Stemming the federal stem cell ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Stem<\/a>
Photo by by Mike Jones for Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Obama administration is now appealing<\/a> a federal judge’s ruling that reversed the go-ahead Obama gave to stem cell researchers just after taking office.\u00a0 At issue is a federal law prohibiting the extraction of stem cells resulting in the destruction of a human embryo.\u00a0 And while this works its way through the courts, US scientists are once again hamstrung relative to their foreign counterparts.<\/p>\n

It can’t be argued that the stem cell extraction doesn’t destroy the embryos, and in that light, the judge’s ruling is likely correct given the current law.\u00a0 However, the argument has always been simply that those embryos were going to be destroyed or allowed to expire anyway.\u00a0 (Frozen embryos have an effective shelf life of about 10 years.)<\/p>\n

In the U.S. alone, there are some 400,000 frozen embryos<\/a> awaiting disposition.\u00a0 Most have been abandoned by couples who either succeeded in having children and no longer need the surplus, or who have given up hope of having children.\u00a0 Either way, extraordinary fertilization techniques continue to create thousands more embryos each year than will never see the inside of a uterus.<\/p>\n

Debate rages over whether those embryos are people or property, but whichever side you are on, the current stem cell law makes no sense.\u00a0 If the embryos are property, then parents and\/or clinics have the right to dispose of them as they wish.\u00a0 This obviously would include turning them over for scientific research.<\/p>\n

If embryos are people, then the practice of creating and shelving them in a freezer is clearly as immoral as destroying them outright, whether for science or not.\u00a0 The law should require that each and every embryo be given a reasonable chance to grow.\u00a0 This means fertilization processes could only produce one or two embryos at a time, and that those embryos would need to be promptly implanted into wombs.\u00a0 This would dramatically reduce the success rate and increase the cost of procedures like in-vitro fertilization.\u00a0 The alternative would be to require that all the dozens of extra embryos created in the process be implanted in other women.\u00a0 Although it seems this would have to result in women being legally drafted to bear children, or at the very least make you pretty nervous when one of your girlfriends announced she and her hubby were trying in-vitro.<\/p>\n

While it may be easy to stand against the destruction of embryos for science, even in light of all the potential good stem cells may provide for health care.\u00a0 It’s much harder to stand for consigning many couples to a childless existence.<\/p>\n

Yet it’s morally and legally inconsistent to have it both ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Obama administration is now appealing a federal judge’s ruling that reversed the go-ahead Obama gave to stem cell researchers<\/p>\n

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