This is an update to the last post. I was a little too flip, and I wanted to be clear about stem cell research. There IS promise in stem cell research, but there’s also a GOOD alternative to destroying embryos.

Couple things from this list of the media-reported myths about stem cell research, just to help us keep things straight:

Myth 1. Stem cells can only come from embryos. In fact, stem cells can be taken from umbilical cords, the placenta, amniotic fluid, adult tissues and organs such as bone marrow, fat from liposuction, regions of the nose, and even from cadavers up to 20 hours after death.

Myth 3. Embryonic stem cell research has the greatest promise. Up to now, no human being has ever been cured of a disease using embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cells, on the other hand, have already cured thousands. [emphasis mine] For example, bone marrow cells from the hipbone have repaired scar tissue on the heart after heart attacks. Research using adult cells is 20-30 years ahead of embryonic stem cells and holds greater promise. This is in part because stem cells are part of the natural repair mechanisms of an adult body, while embryonic stem cells do not belong in an adult body (where they are likely to form tumors, and to be rejected as foreign tissue by the recipient). Rather, embryonic stem cells really belong only within in the specialized microenvironment of a rapidly growing embryo, which is a radically different setting from an adult body.

Do we all get how weird this is? There’s a way to do this that doesn’t involve the destruction of nascent human life and doesn’t put us into the ethically murky waters of harvesting the unborn for their body parts. We don’t have to do this in order to get stem cells, and yet the science and progressive communities want us to and want to silence the opposition by saying they’re being moralistic and obstructive.

I think what’s behind this compulsion among the non-scientific elites is that it shores up the case they want to build for abortion being somehow a more compassionate choice than bearing children. That’s always been a ludicrous thing to say, but if anyone is capable of repeating an insane statement often enough that you start to have doubts, it would be these guys. And look at what a jump forward it is for them if they can say that the really caring woman is the one who not only treats conception as if she was ordering takeout food, but funnels the discarded embryos to laboratories in order to further the march of progress (and pick up a check in the bargain).

As for what the scientists want out of this, who knows? The brand of atheism in that community is fairly legendary, but it’s just guesswork to say what else is going on.

BTW, here’s another more involved factsheet. Both of these are from ‘06, so someone else might know of more recent information.