A remarkable post.
I left a circle of UU's at a near loss for words once when I told them I found destroying human embryos for medical research (and eventually therapies) immoral.
I can't differentiate the moral worth of a human being at any stage of life. So I apply the rules on human medical research from conception to grave.
Our talk came to an abrupt end save a reply they're not embryos, they're blastocysts; which is exactly what this little grey mass on the image I clipped from the post appears to be.
2 comments:
It's important to follow through.
There are incredibly few (if any) blastocytes which are recovered from a woman for any sort of research. I would in fact hazard that none are.
So there's a red herring in this.
To my knowledge, the majority of blastocytes that are--or were, or could be--available are the result of some form of assisted reproductive technology, most typically in vitro fertilization. This is a means by which a woman who cannot get pregnant can have a blastocyte implanted.
This is difficult, expensive, and while it has a fair rate of success... it's not as good as nature's rate of success. So because it's difficult, expensive and a solid majority of attempted implantations fail, the standard practice is to harvest multiple eggs (which is an unpleasant process, so women understandably prefer to harvest a bunch, and only once, if possible).
Eggs--which we agree are not humans, just as individual spermatozoa are not.
The eggs are then fertilized.
The resulting very-few cell blastocytes are examined and by means I'm not familiar with, as well as standards I've not been informed about, are deemed to be of greater or lesser quality (in terms of likelihood of survival, implantation, etc.).
Some number, usually a few (not eight!) are implanted... and everyone waits to see what happens. Often enough, the answer is nothing. No pregnancy.
(Has any wrong been committed so far?)
Sometimes there's a pregnancy--usually one, sometimes two (more twins than nature, though I think that's only fraternal that's elevated).
Herein lies the rub.
There is a pool of blastocytes that have been created. Unless they all get used in attempts to become pregnant (successful or not), then there are blastocytes left...
And the choices are?
Leave them deep frozen (this is delaying, not resolving...).
Offer them for "adoption." (There are a range of other moral issues involved in that... including that there are already a lot of kids, already born, looking for adoption...)
Dispose of them.
Use them for medical research, stem cells, etc.
There are no completely easy answers to this.
The option that says "don't create them" (so that you avoid the issues downstream) is absurd. That horse is out of the barn, and the idea that creating a human life that is very, very much wanted and will be cared for is immoral seems to be flawed.
Simply saying "throw them away" (euphemistically, "dispose of them") is morally superior to using them to help heal diseases? I don't find that persuasive.
Saying "adopt" is a cheap and easy warm and fuzzy answer. There are already too many of us, and too many kids needing adoption. Creating more because they're there as potential lives? (Remember, most of these face implantations that won't succeed statistically and in fact are likely to be among those deemed less likely to succeed by whatever standards that's being measured.)
Moral challenge? Damned straight it is.
But the line you're drawing seems to me to be conveniently simple, and black and white... in a realm where the lines are broad, blurry and tend to be grey.
If they're human beings, and their moral value is the same as any other human being (we won't grade some humans as more worthy than others based on their stage of life) then they're entitled to the same protections granted any other human being.
If they're a waste of space, or of little social value, that doesn't make them candidates for medical research.
This issue of harvesting hasn't arisen yet. If therapies arise, it will.
It is a pretty stark line for me. Much clearer than abortion.
If you accept the blastocyte as human life, everything pretty much follows.
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