Life on the Line

A detailed Summary of Life on the Line

For thousands of years, and generations upon generations, humans have faced decisions of life and death. Many times these decisions are based upon religion, superstition, and politics. Now we come to a junction in the social evolution of man, where we have the ability to take giant steps forward in the development of medicine and we stumble with our resolve to help everyone, based on ideologies of religion, ethics and politics. I would like to ask why, the full funding of stem cell research by the U.S. government should not proceed. In order to achieve the great breakthroughs in curing many diseases burdening all societies throughout the world, shouldn't we continue experimentation? Should we expect financial help from the federal government?

In a report by B.A. Robinson, a stem cell is a primitive type of cell that can be coaxed into developing into most of the 220 types of cells found in the human body (e.g. blood cells, heart cells, brain cells, etc). Some researchers regard them as offering the greatest potential for the alleviation of human suffering since the development of antibiotics. Over 100 million Americans suffer from diseases that may eventually be treated

more effectively with stem cells or even cured. These include heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Research using stem cells has been authorized in Britain, but was halted in the U.S. by President George W. Bush. Bush decided on 2001-AUG-9 to allow research to start again in government labs, but restricted research to use only existing lines of stem cells. Research continues in U.S. private labs and in both government and private labs in the UK, Japan, France, Australia, and other countries.

With regard to the growth of the cells and their ability to produce two humans it is easy to see the embryo is not a human. It would not contain a soul at this time (if one were so inclined to believe due to religious convictions), only the map of how to become a human. This is the answer to the Pro-life consensus that a human exists with a soul at the point of conception. Are there two souls put into one fertilized egg, just in case the cells split into identical twins? The writer disagrees with this discourse. If a case were to be made by the Pro-Life religious sects of when a group of cells has a soul and is a human, than a more believable theory would have to be investigated.

Sharon Begley also quoted Utah Senator Orrin Hatch as saying, "A frozen embryo in a refrigerator in a clinic isn't the same as a fetus developing in a mother's womb". A group of embryonic cells is not a person or human. There is a potential to be a person or human, but there is a potential for a sperm or an ovum to facilitate the creation of a human. If we look at a fertilized ovum and the process of the embryo developing, we can see that it is

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Approximate Word count = 1105
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Science