Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2007 > November > 21
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
An early reason to be thankful
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s never too early to start being thankful for our blessings — one of which is in the news today. It’s the announcement that teams of scientists in Japan and Wisconsin have made a breakthrough in stem cell research that’s being compared to the Wright Brothers’ airplane.
Without having to destroy human life, the two teams, working independently, added four genes to human skin cells, creating what appears to be embryonic stem cells. Two of the genes the two teams used used differed, but both discoveries appear to have the potential to turn into any of the body’s 220 cell types, reports The New York Times.
On the day before Thanksgiving the discovery is, truly, a reason to be thankful — thankful that a door may be opened for the nation to escape the divisive moral and ethical wars that accompanied debates about federal tax dollars for embryonic stem cell research. The risk there has always been that human life would be created for the purpose of destroying it. Every option appeared to lead to the slippery slope. Researchers have been free to proceed as they chose, though, but without federal money.
I’m curious how those who gather here think — and feel — about embryonic stem cell research, and specifically the use of federal money to finance it, two entirely different matters. Many who would support research would, I suspect, oppose funding it with taxpayer dollars on the grounds that they shouldn’t be forced to fund something that offends their moral and religious beliefs.
