Not Quite the Ides, but Still Disastrous

In a monumentally terrible decision in his as-yet wet-behind-the-ears presidency, Barry O'Bama has decided to officially overturn George Bush's executive policy prohibiting the use of federal funds (in other words, your tax money) for embryonic stem cell research. Thus, I imagine that it will no doubt shortly be the case that the money the federal government has taken from you will be used to fund embryonic stem cell research, on some level, at least.

Now, what about this research? I mean, there are plenty of scientists and quasi-scientists out there claiming that it will magically lead to the cures for all of the worst diseases that afflict the human race. Supposedly, embryonic stem cell research is going to cure Alzheimer's, diabetes, Parkinson's, cancer, and anything else that the current medical establishment has not yet been able to cure. Somehow, I doubt that this research will swiftly and effortlessly lead to such a fantastic revolution in medicine. However, that's not to say that it does not provide some promise. So, basically, the question on anyone's mind ought to be: Well, if it shows promise for potentially decreasing massive amounts of human suffering, what's so wrong about it?

The answer to that is actually fairly simple. Stem cells, as far as I (a far cry from a scientist, I'll have you know) understand it, are cells that form in the very beginning stages of what I believe to be life just after fertilization. When the fertilized egg (the zygote) needs to grow, it does so by dividing, splitting itself, and forming new cells. Those cells have the remarkable ability to turn into practically anything that they're needed to be on down the line--brain, heart, muscle, lung, and so on. Scientists want to tap into this remarkable stem cell ability to change into different things in order to grow things like brain cells, heart cells, liver cells, pancreas cells, and so forth in order to undo the effects of some pretty nasty diseases. The only problem with the plan, however, is that it requires them to take stem cells from a growing embryo and use them for someone else. In the process, the embryo (a person) is destroyed (i.e., killed). On that grounds, the Catholic Church and many other persons and organizations have seen through the promise of stem cell research to its underlying moral problem, and ruled it out as an unethical alternative. Sure, it could help, but people will die in the process, and that isn't acceptable.

Now that President Obama is lining himself up to be a fierce opponent of the Pro-Life movement, I think it is time to start rethinking our game plan and tackling new problems with new force.