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Last week, a U.S. district court judge blocked an Obama-backed plan for increased federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Embryonic stem cells hold the greatest promise for development into over 200 varieties, or cell lines, that could be used to treat and miraculously cure catastrophic conditions and diseases like severe spinal cord injury, Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes, heart problems and kidney disease. Stem cell researchers are also exploring the potential of human cloning. Don’t ask me why.
In my opinion, however, the court’s decision barring further government spending on this is appropriate. Stem cell research raises profound moral and ethical issues for which there are as yet no answers. From what little I know about its complex technical aspects, and though I doubt it can be altogether stopped, the research is a slippery slope to a world where the value of all human life is diminished. Some of us may be getting well while the rest of us are catching hell.
I believe we began this slippery slide decades ago with the advent of “the pill.” Now commonplace, the birth control pill prevents women from ovulating. No doubt the hopes of the developers and distributors of the pill, like those of embryonic stem cell researchers, were paved with good intentions. We all know the place where that pavement is likely to lead.
As time has passed, the widespread use of the pill has profoundly altered male/female relationships, family size and stability, and millennial past notions of the sanctity of the procreative act. Put bluntly, the goal of sex has become pleasure, not producing offspring. That may not have been the intent, but it is certainly the reality. Anything goes these days. Need I say more?
Such problems are called “unintended outcomes.” And this is the problem — multiplied hundreds of times over — with embryonic stem cell research. For all its great curative promise, I don’t think anyone knows what unintended outcomes may arise when the research moves from the laboratory to the real world.
The ethical concerns related to the enterprise have sparked a vigorous debate between scientists, on the one hand, and bioethesists, philosophers and clergy on the other. These concerns fall into roughly two categories. First, there is the question of whether or not early stage embryos are human beings or not. Second, there are real issues around the arguable morality and potential pitfalls of human cloning.
A related issue — a potential unintended outcome — is whether or not, in the future, we will find America’s poorest women selling viable embryos to eager scientists who may not be able to produce enough of them — tens of thousands — in the laboratory. Also, if human beings are cloned, where will they fit in society? Will their lives be more or less valuable than those who are conceived the old-fashioned way?
I believe it is also important to note that there is a global competition among scientists for breakthroughs in embryonic stem cell research. There are roughly 16 nations vigorously supporting such research. China is leading the way. The “winner” is likely to have the rest of the world beating a path to their laboratory doors.
Success in the enterprise likely will bring great prestige to whoever gets there first, along with greater wealth and power. In this, I simply note that the United States has never liked being playing second fiddle to other nations. We like to win, even if we are unsure of the prize or the price of winning. These are some of the reasons I don’t believe stem cell research can be stopped in the U.S., even if it has to be privately funded.
I don’t see the United States willing to take second or third place, even if it is a slippery slope in the race to some unknown place. Besides, the research, privately funded, is legal. Already, private investment in embryonic stem cell research is growing, and it is likely to continue to do so. There are potential billions in profit for miraculous cures to some of our most dreaded diseases.
At the end of the day, then, I suspect efforts at successful embryonic stem cell research will continue, here and abroad. What history teaches, however, is that men, confronted with a chance at immense fame and fortune, will take almost any risk. Sadly, in this medical science research Gold Rush, they ignore the possibility of deeply worrisome unintended outcomes and, perhaps, risk the wrath of God.
Have a nice day.
Primus Mootry is an Anderson resident. His column is published each Wednesday.
