Human enough, no matter where or how

If I wanted to study disease through embryonic stem cell research, I’d imagine that I would want to study only those with the disease or susceptible to the development of the disease. How many of the chosen, frozen embryos are likely to be diseased?

This is just one of the questions you need to ask your Senators today.

The debate on increasing tax funding for destructive embryonic research will begin today in the US Senate, with votes planned for tomorrow. I’m afraid that (except this vote will be the result of the representative democratic legislative process rather than a judicial fiat, which is a huge difference, I know) we will all look back at 2006 as the same sort of turning point that 1973 was.

Our Senators appear to be poised to pass all three bills, including the one that will allow government funding for research that depends on the destruction of the embryonic brothers and sisters of babies who have been born to and fill the arms of parents that desired children so much that they used the highest technology and complicated medical procedures to create them. These children were purposefully created, they passed the first tests of viability, but were “excess” or not as robust as their siblings who were implanted, and so they were abandoned to a freezer.

Nevertheless, these are human organisms. They were organized enough in the process of development that they were frozen rather than deemed defective or dead and flushed as waste. They deserve our protection and our affirmation that they, too, have the right not to be purposefully killed to harvest their parts.

This year, the researchers ask for funding for “left over” embryos. What is the ethical difference between newly and specifically created embryos or cloned embryos and these?

Call your Senators today and urge them to vote against the funding of destructive embryonic research. Again, you can access your Senator’s information at Thomas.gov.