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From Stem Cells to IVF Centers - What We Learned
Since ignorance is so widespread on the stem cell issue let me give a brief layman's overview. What are IVF discards? Answer: They are embryos created in laboratories that are never implanted into the uterus. They are called "discards" because that is what happens to these tiny new human beings. First they are created in a lab and then they die. Please re-read. If you are not shocked, please check your pulse. The Pro-Life cause lost the debate on In Vitro Fertilization many years ago. Anyone who opposed In Vitro Fertilization was considered a religious wacko. Lost in this history, is the fact that when they complained in 1980 that 19 out of 20 artificially inseminated embryos died - these were the "IVF discards." We talk about the ethics of stem cell research. But since the moral foundation is based on IVF discards, before we get to any discussion of stem cell ethics we need to re-hash the ethics of In Vitro Fertilization. Little Known Fact: in the 1980s IVF discards presented the strongest case against the practice of assisted reproduction (1). Ignorance prevailed then. Ignorance prevails now. Knowing nothing about IVF discards back then, we sold ourselves on IVF because morally speaking it didn't make any difference to us 'how' a pregancy was achieved. Achieving pregnancy was an inherantly Pro-Life sounding kind of thing. If you did a survey, less than 1% of the population would be able to tell you that what made In Vitro Fertilization a wrong thing had anything to do with "IVF discards." Most people never heard about them. Now, all of a sudden, among those who understand that to do embryonic stem cell therapy you have to destroy an embryo - which is a human being, suddenly we are remembering all those discards. Hold everything! I say what we ought to be doing is using this new awareness not to justify Stem Cell Research but to battle against In Vitro Fertilization, which is the real killer. Attack the problem at its root. If we could only get the popular mind thinking right then we would all win. First, we would win because embryonic stem cells are not as effective as adult stem cells in therapy. If we knew all the facts, we wouldn't waste our money or our time on it. That same time and money could be directed to adult stem cell research/therapy rather than embryonic(2). And then lives could really be saved just as we all hope. Second, knowing the facts, we would all win because we would put an end to In Vitro Fertilzation, which never should have been a human practice to begin with. People who want babies can adopt them. It is pure vanity to think the genes of our children have to be partly our own. It shouldn't be legal to be so vain. Granted, the discard ratio has improved from 95% to about 70% after 25 years of IVF practice(3). But please slow down a minute and consider the precise moral issue. It can be expressed in the following simple question: In order to have a baby, do I adopt a baby that doesn't have any of my genes or do I let two or more of my own babies die so that I can get pregnant and have another that does have some of my genes? Please just slow down and think about that question a minute. Third, we would win if we knew all the facts because we would realize that discards don't need to be killed. And they don't need to be used for experiments. They can be adopted just like any other human being(4). If you meet anyone who tells you that embryonic stem cell research is justifiable on account of IVF discards, when they tell you these lives are being wasted anyway so why not put them to use, scream for the lives of these little ones who can't speak for themselves. There is an alternative. It is adoption. It applies to women considering abortion. It applies to researchers considering embryonic stem cell research. IVF discards can be adopted and implanted into another woman's uterus. Embryonic Stem Cell Research kills them, and given all of the above, for reasons which are not justifiable. As for me, I am a simple Christian man. I don't believe abortion should be legal. Life is a higher value than privacy or choice. Roe v. Wade should be overturned. Neither do I support the death penalty. Even the most hardened criminal can be saved. If you kill them they no longer have the chance to repent. I don't believe in euthanasia. I do believe in helping the poor. What I ask other Christians to do is to get over their politics and consider whether they have a consistent ethic. An essential part of that is learning all the facts. (1)
http://www.usccb.org/prolife/issues/ivf/lif8588.htm
A 1980 Virginia study showed 19 of 20 embryos died in IVF. Permission to reprint this article unedited and in full only. Authorship, title, date and reference to this web site must by included.
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Do
IVF discards mean anything to you? If you followed the 2004 presidential
campaigns they should. For the Democrats they were a trump card
in the stem cell debate. Recent polls show that even among Pro-Life
Christians about 50% support embryonic stem cell research. The
reason is the discards. 