The Problem of Deception in Stem Cell Research

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More comments from Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on the A.C.T./ Nature scandal :o at the International Congress organized by the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations and the Pontifical Academy for Life in Rome last week.
…All that Lanza showed was that he could kill embryos at an earlier stage than usual, and then sometimes trick the resulting cells into developing to a slightly later stage to produce a cell line. Even if he ultimately were to find a way to get one cell from each embryo to create a cell line, he would still be relying on an “embryo biopsy” procedure that sometimes harms the embryo and also has an unknown risk of harming any children later born alive. So he solved no ethical problem regarding the safety of the embryo. But he did highlight another ethical problem: deception in the field of embryonic stem cell research…
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Has science been hijacked by self-interest groups who neither respect life nor truth? :whacky: usccb.org/prolife/issues/bioethic/RDRome91506speech.pdf
 
Rosalinda said:
Has science been hijacked by self-interest groups who neither respect life nor truth? :whacky: usccb.org/prolife/issues/bioethic/RDRome91506speech.pdf
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Not all of it has. I am a scientist, (I hope) a good and moral one, and most of the other scientists I know are also very moral and ethical people. Many of us will not work with embryonic stem cells, because we know that it is wrong. The problem behind a lot of this is 1) ignorance of what the embryonic stem cells actually are (this is not excusable, certainly) and 2) greed: everyone wants to be the first to publish the hot research paper in the big journals, which has led to falsifying of data in a number of recent incidences.

Fortunately, embryonic stem cell research comprises a very small amount of scientific research. I don’t expect to ever be in a position where I have to conduct such research or else lose my job. There’s too much else to study for me to compromise my beliefs in such a manner.
 
SeekerJen, Thank you for your contribution. It is good to know there are still ethical scientists :tiphat: who genuinely seek truth.
 
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