Ethical Stem Cell Research Breakthrough?

Posted August 26, 2006 in News

The science pages are humming that there might have been a breakthrough in embryonic stem cell research, where cells can be harvested without damaging the embryo. If true, this is excellent news. However this potentially lucrative market has already proven it can elevate fraudulent science with the recent Korean scandal. Therefore the cynical would call for evidence of "safely harvested" embryos being allowed to grow to maturity to demonstrate that the embryo is both viable and suffers no congenital defects as a result of the stem cell harvesting.

A conscience vote on embryonic stem cell research is being put to the Australian parliament in the near future. This has already seen some heated discussion, with some visionary politicians expressing moral concerns about what might become technically feasible, and the complacent condescendingly dismissing the arguments out of hand.

In my own submission to the Flockhart review, I made the point that we need to establish the moral framework before we deal with the actuality. We need to ask what it is that makes us human, what is to be reverred and what is to be respected. If we do not develop a fundamental understanding of what it is to be intrinscially human, then we leave open a portal for mad scientists to create something which is not classified as human and can be turned into slaves (shades of the movie "Bladerunner").

One of my other principles is that it is morally reprehensible to institutionalise the murdering or maiming of some souls for the preservation or wellbeing of others. Spiritually this acknowledges our interdependency and that prosperity for one group should not come at the expense of poverty of slavery for another. It reflects a conviction that every life is sacred and in the ideal world each an every child conceived is desired by both parents and there is a belief and commitment to the wellbeing of the child from conception until death. That means being able to feed and clothe the child, and giving the child a future where they can envisage generations infused with wellbeing.

Science and religion can cohabitate, religion provides the rudder that can steer science out of unscrupulous waters. Yet in turn, science helps religion by showing us the means and creating the technologies that enable us to live and communicate in relative safely. Both science and religion are dependent upon good foundations, because history has demonstrated that humanity's worst nightmares have come out of unscrupulous souls misuse of science and/or religion. If stem cells can be created or harvested in such a way that no soul is murdered or maimed, then it is ethical and can be encouraged.

LINKS: BBC Ethical Stem cells created New Scientist US liberals

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