While I don’t follow politics very closely, when a news item like this shows up I have to read it. The Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced he will support legislation to expand stem cell research. From the article:
Frist — a heart-lung transplant surgeon, a close Bush ally and a possible 2008 presidential candidate — said he would formally announce his decision and "outline my convictions as a physician, as a healer as well as a policymaker" in a Senate speech.
"This research is promising, embryonic stem cell research as well as adult stem cell research, … and now is the time to expand the president’s policies because it’s promising research but it must be done in a way that is ethically considerate," Frist told ABC’s "Good Morning America" program.
I respect the Senator for supporting something his party leader openly opposes. It is also easier to swallow his view on the topic since he shares my view. Stem cell research is a promising field, but I agree that the methods used to obtain stem cells should be left to embryos that would otherwise be destroyed.
Rather than simply destroying an embryo that is unwanted or unusable for implantation, it would seem to me that a more constructive use and ethical end for the embryo is in helping researchers find cures or treatments for diseases such as Parkinson’s and treatments for paralysis or loss of limbs. While stem cells can be gathered from other sources, such as umbilical cords and placentas, and private funding can be used on creating more lines of embryonic stem cells, I don’t see why we should limit ourselves to funding only existing embryonic stem cell lines if we can do more.
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