We interrupt this blog-break to announce: Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research is on!

Why the fuss?

.

Today a friend asked me with genuine sincerity, "I do not understand why it is so wrong to take stem cells from embryos, embryos which will be destroyed anyway. Isn't it better to use them to save lives and cure disease? In either case, they will eventually be destroyed."

.

I understood his confusion, and answered as best I could, "We have been socially conditioned into rejecting the idea that a human embryo is actually a person. I'm not a bio-ethicist nor a theologian, and therefore I'm unable to explain it in depth, but the destruction of a human embryo is the destruction of a human person. It is killing."

.

"Yes, but the embryos will probably be destroyed anyway, so isn't it better to use the stem cells for the good of the living?"

.

Again, he wasn't seeking to challenge me, or to argue the matter, my friend simply did not understand why the Church was so opposed. I realized that most lay people, as well as those who are physically disabled by illness, yet hoping for a cure through this research, see it the same way: "What's the difference? If the embryos are there, why not put them to good use." I tried to explain as best I could that I understand that thought process, and compared it to the experimentation by the Nazis. I said, "The prisoners in the camps were going to die anyway, so the Nazi doctors thought, 'why not experiment upon them and harvest what we can first.'"

.

"Well that was different," he answered respectfully disagreeing. "This isn't the same thing."

.

Human sacrifice back in vogue.

.

"I think it is," I said politely. "The marketing of such an evil is more slick and sophisticated today; it is presented as a sanitized, clinical study for the benefit of mankind. (Potentially generating huge profits for the health-care industry.) As a society we already kill children through abortion and in post-abortion born-alive situations. Popular culture ignores it however, and calls it choice. Even if one is against abortion, one does not always accept the reality that an embryo is a human person. Therefore, exploiting human embryos, indeed sacrificing human lives, which do not even look like babies, doesn't seem so evil."

.

Nevertheless, I could not persuade him. My friend, along with countless other Americans simply do not believe a human embryo is a person. We discussed the matter for a few more minutes. He, asking if other religions were opposed to it, or was it just the Catholic Church, and so on. Sadly, many people think it is simply a faith issue, and that the Catholic Church is just one religion among countless others, making up rules to control mankind. Such are the effects of relativism - Catholicism is just another ideology. I guess if Buddhism taught that it is okay to do it, then my friend would say, "So there, it isn't immoral." Once again we see how fallen human nature searches for approval, to the point of altering natural law, in order to affirm evil as good.

.

Nevertheless, I could not convince my friend, and he changed the subject. He likes the British actor, Tilda Swinton quite a lot.

.

Comments are back on BTW.