Christians and Stem Cells

No doubt you’ve heard. The senate passed the bill to allow for expanded federal funding of embryonic stem cell research and Bush vetoed it, the first such veto of his presidency.

I’m hot. Not even because of people’s positions but rather the hypocrisy I see permeating this issue. The issue is what to do with thousands (more than 400,000 actually) fertilized eggs that sit in frozen storage around the county, left over from in vitro fertilization (which produces many more fertilized eggs than are used in the women seeking to get pregnant). The bill would have allowed for federal funding towards research using stem cells from these fertilized eggs. Some view this as tantamount to murder.

The irony is that if someone really feels that way, then in vitro fertilization is, to put it most bluntly, killing a handful of lives to create one or two. Yet I’ve never heard the outraged screams against in vitro fertilization that we’ve heard these last few days over embryonic stem cells.

Christians simply cannot have it both ways. You cannot say that abortion or stem cell research is morally wrong, and then turn around the moment you can’t have children and say, “Thank God for in vitro fertilization!” as you run off to the clinic creating excess embryos, and then blissfully enjoy the new family without ever reflecting on how you got it. If people really believe that life starts at the moment of conception, they cannot simply make exceptions when it’s convenient for them.

What defies belief to me is Bush’s 2001 “compromise” over federal funding of stem cell research, where he decided to allow federal funding for existing stem cell lines, justifying the position as limiting research only to the cases “where the decision on life and death has already been made.” I’m sorry Mr. President. The decision on “life and death” (in his words) has already been made. There’s over 400,000 embryos waiting to be thrown in the trash, and apparently that’s a better option that using them with the aim of curing disease.

I do not wish to villify people that hold pro-life convictions. However, particularly in the stem cell debate, I think we’ve gotten terribly close to the Catholic idea that even birth control is sinful (a position I’m strongly opposed to). I’m sorry, I do thank God every day for birth control, and actively pray that it continues to be effective. If though one does not accept that there is a difference between a small clump of cells with the potential for life and a baby, then one must be consistent in that belief.

Yes, I obviously support embryonic stem cell research. But I’d like to think I’m humble enough to recognize that my opinion is not the only opinion. I can respect, though I disagree with, someone who holds the conviction that life begins at conception. It’s hard to respect that position however when it becomes so clearly contradictory.