Stem Cell Research vs. Embryo Destruction

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PeteZaHut

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From what I understand, the moral problem with stem cell research is that it requires the destruction of an embryo (a human life). Then, the question can be raised that if certain embryos are going to be destroyed anyway, why would it be wrong to perform research on it once it had already been destroyed? The response I’ve heard to that is that you can’t morally accept destroyed embryos for research because that would be in cooperation with those who destroyed the embryos to begin with. SO, I ask, what if embryos were destroyed by scientists and discarded, then someone else took the embryos for stem cell research without the destroyers knowing? I understand that destroying the embryos would be immoral here, but would the act of research be immoral?
 
The most promising research has not been with embryonic stem cells, but with adult stem cells, which do not require the destruction of embryos.
 
Another problem is that if you allowed it with embryos that were “going to be destroyed already” it opens it up for people to lie and falsify records to make it seem like the embryos were in that category when maybe they were not
 
PeteZaHut said:
From what I understand, the moral problem with stem cell research is that it requires the destruction of an embryo (a human life). Then, the question can be raised that if certain embryos are going to be destroyed anyway, why would it be wrong to perform research on it once it had already been destroyed? The response I’ve heard to that is that you can’t morally accept destroyed embryos for research because that would be in cooperation with those who destroyed the embryos to begin with. SO, I ask, what if embryos were destroyed by scientists and discarded, then someone else took the embryos for stem cell research without the destroyers knowing? I understand that destroying the embryos would be immoral here, but would the act of research be immoral?
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There are two answers to this, the moral and the practical.

No, you may not do research on embryos that would be destroyed “anyway”, it is not moral. One may not do evil even in the pursuit of good.

The practical answer to this is that you seem to think you can just dig embryos out of the garbage and do stem cell research on them. The stem cells are extracted from LIVE embryos. It is the extraction of the cells that kills the developing human person.

While *embryonic *stem cell research is not moral, one is certainly free to do stem cell research on adult stem cells and cord blood stem cells. Neither of these types of research is immoral at all.
 
1ke said:
There are two answers to this, the moral and the practical.

No, you may not do research on embryos that would be destroyed “anyway”, it is not moral. One may not do evil even in the pursuit of good.

The practical answer to this is that you seem to think you can just dig embryos out of the garbage and do stem cell research on them. The stem cells are extracted from LIVE embryos. It is the extraction of the cells that kills the developing human person.

While *embryonic *stem cell research is not moral, one is certainly free to do stem cell research on adult stem cells and cord blood stem cells. Neither of these types of research is immoral at all.
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That helps me understand. Thank you. Kind of like the question I remember people asking in high school “If I’m going to have pre-marital sex, is it still wrong to wear a condom?” The answer to the question was usually “Well, don’t have pre-marital sex.”
 
JimG said:
The most promising research has not been with embryonic stem cells, but with adult stem cells, which do not require the destruction of embryos.
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This doesn’t answer the OP’s question.
Mkb617 said:
Another problem is that if you allowed it with embryos that were “going to be destroyed already” it opens it up for people to lie and falsify records to make it seem like the embryos were in that category when maybe they were not
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Yeah, but you don’t know that falsification will happen. It might not happen.
1ke said:
No, you may not do research on embryos that would be destroyed “anyway”, it is not moral. One may not do evil even in the pursuit of good.
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But how would it be doing evil? If Professor A is working in a lab, and Professor B says, “Do you want to harvest stem cells from these embryos? If you don’t, I’ll destroy them now. If you want them, come down to my lab to get them.”
 
"Yeah, but you don’t know that falsification will happen. It might not happen. "

That is true…if you leave a gun in a room full of unsupervised children you don’t “know” that someone will get hurt… It doesn’t mean It is smart or moral to do so.
 
meltzerboy said:
Where did you read or hear about this? I thought the opposite was the case.
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I’ve heard about it quite a lot. It seems that adult stem cells have actually worked to help cure or alleviate many diseases, whereas embryonic stem cell research has accomplished little or nothing. But I don’t have the links at hand. I’ll try to locate some when I have time.
 
on_the_hill said:
This doesn’t answer the OP’s question.

Yeah, but you don’t know that falsification will happen. It might not happen.

But how would it be doing evil? If Professor A is working in a lab, and Professor B says, “Do you want to harvest stem cells from these embryos? If you don’t, I’ll destroy them now. If you want them, come down to my lab to get them.”
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I think that 1Ke has already addressed the question. One can’t do evil to do good. It would be the equivalent of a scientist at a holocaust camp saying, “well since these people are going to die anyway, how about if I do some experiments on them either before or after you kill them?”

And with embryonic stem cell experiments, it is the experiment itself that kills them.
 
JimG said:
I think that 1Ke has already addressed the question.
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If I were satisfied with the first answer, I wouldn’t have asked. 🙂
JimG said:
One can’t do evil to do good. It would be the equivalent of a scientist at a holocaust camp saying, “well since these people are going to die anyway, how about if I do some experiments on them either before or after you kill them?”

And with embryonic stem cell experiments, it is the experiment itself that kills them.
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I’m not disputing the ‘don’t do evil to do good’ notion. Is stem cell research the same as concentration camp research? Not from a moral perspective, but from a clinical, medical standpoint. I don’t know, which is why I’m asking. Is it the case that harvesting stem cells from embryos necessarily kills them?
 
on_the_hill said:
But how would it be doing evil? If Professor A is working in a lab, and Professor B says, “Do you want to harvest stem cells from these embryos? If you don’t, I’ll destroy them now. If you want them, come down to my lab to get them.”
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You may not harvest stem cells from embryos. It is intrinsically evil.

If Professor B destroys them, that is his sin. You may not take them and destroy them just because Professor B says he will if you don’t.
 
meltzerboy said:
Where did you read or hear about this? I thought the opposite was the case.
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All major medical advances using stem cell research has been using adult stem cells. That’s one of the reasons there is no longer a loud voice from the embryonic stem cell research people because all the evidence is against them.
 
PeteZaHut said:
From what I understand, the moral problem with stem cell research is that it requires the destruction of an embryo (a human life). Then, the question can be raised that if certain embryos are going to be destroyed anyway, why would it be wrong to perform research on it once it had already been destroyed? The response I’ve heard to that is that you can’t morally accept destroyed embryos for research because that would be in cooperation with those who destroyed the embryos to begin with. SO, I ask, what if embryos were destroyed by scientists and discarded, then someone else took the embryos for stem cell research without the destroyers knowing? I understand that destroying the embryos would be immoral here, but would the act of research be immoral?
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Only embryonic stem cell research is morally problematic. The church supports and actually funds morally licit stem cell research.
 
meltzerboy said:
Thank you. I did hear about their use, but I thought they had been found to be less effective.
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Actually, it is the morally problematic stem cell research that have zero effective therapies to date. All of the effective therapies are the results of morally licit stem cell research.
 
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