Monday, December 05, 2005

Cloning Frankenstein's Stem Cells

People identify the monster with the name Frankenstein although the monster never had a name. A similar disconnect is happening with cloning and stem cell research. No one wants to use cloning to make a child to harvest its organs, but many want a possible cure for diabetes and spinal cord injuries. What to do? Dr. Frankenstein wouldn't care. It would be full steam ahead and anything goes. Ethicists and Christians know there is a sacred component to human life that should not be tampered with by mere mortals.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer doesn't care whether the stem cells come from discarded aborted embryos or from cloned ones. Stem cells can still develop into almost any of the body's specialized cells, thus the potential for treating diseases. So using stem cells from still births or from adults might be okay for some research to some people, clearly, applying capitalism and establishing abortion factories to produce cloned stem cells to harvest ogans and body parts would be evil to most people. Hollywood has repeatedly shown us the end result of Frankenstein-type experiments from The Matrix to The Island of Dr. Moreau. Hitler's Nazi scientists had the will but not the technology at the time to 'make a better human.' So where do you stand on this issue?

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