A Principled Stand

Fire of Liberty

As I look over the pictures of the newly cloned Afghan hound in South Korea, I become even more scared about science reaching beyond its intended boundaries. If scientist are so willing and able to clone sheep, horses and dogs there's no doubt in my mind that they'll garner enough courage to take on the task of cloning humans in the future. While the cloning of man and a post-human future foretold by Huxley is a long way in the future, you can see a similar ethical quandary when it comes to the whole debate over embryonic stem cell research. We need to step back and look at what the whole debate is circling around which is our respect for life.

As a Christian and someone who suffers from a neuromuscular disease, I have a great respect for human life and know how precious it is. With this at hand, I generally get chills down my spine when a scientist or a politician starts claiming that they can possibly create a cure for a disease if Congress only expanded federal funding on such research. What they are really asking is for half of this nation to spend countless amounts of their tax dollars on research that treats these early forms of life as mere sugar cubes or popsicles sticks that they can be used and be thrown to the wayside when they're done with them. Yes, it's nice to find cures for the problems and diseases that ail our children, parents, grandparents, as well as ourselves but at what cost are we willing to take go to achieve this goal. I can't imagine somebody who constantly cheers for this increased funding would sit by and allow a doctor or scientist to perform research on the physically or mentally disabled or even the elderly because "they're just sitting around."

As the proponents of such research would stand up for these individuals because they are a living human beings, the opponents of the federally funded embryonic stem cell research have taken a stand for the early beginnings of human life. No matter how young, old, large or small it might be, human life is one of the most special things known to man. I'd have to say that Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, a Republican and Doctor, put it best in his Op/Ed in today's USA Today. I only wished more people would be as principled like Coburn, George Allen, Sam Brownback and President Bush on such a subject.