Word: embryos
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...bishop suggested that the realm of biotechnology was especially dangerous, which reflects church teaching that destroying an embryo equates with murder. But the original mortal sins had as much to do with attitudes as with acts. Greed might lead to theft, lust to adultery, but the sin began in the heart. Yet modern research does not seem wicked to many suffering patients or the doctors who hope to cure them; the church's sin is their salvation. Likewise the accumulation of excessive wealth: leave aside the historical irony of this charge issuing from the Vatican. What do we make...
...credit two scrupulous professors for making the case that skittish politicians won't. In their new book, Embryo: A Defense of Human Life, Princeton's Robert George and the University of South Carolina's Christopher Tollefsen argue for treating the embryo as inviolable. Their defense, less theological than biological, is that the embryo is a whole, living member of the human species in its earliest stage of development, not just a potential one or a part of one--and if destroyed, that particular individual has perished. From that conviction arise their rules for both research and reproduction: Don't create...
Adopting these rules would mean that America is catching up with Europe, where governments subsidize more of the costs and so control some of the risks. Italy and Germany forbid embryo storage; England limits doctors to implanting two embryos, or three if a woman is over 40. Sweden and Belgium allow only one. Many lawmakers are driven less by moral than medical concerns, for the health of mother and baby and the costs associated with premature and multiple births. Professional associations in the U.S. also favor limits but stress the need to treat each case individually; they recommend a maximum...
...Japan and Wisconsin used to arrive at stem cells involves transferring four genes into the genome of a mature cell through virus. These four genes produce factors that “reprogram” the mature cell’s genome to a stem-like state. No viable embryo, therefore, is either created or destroyed—which is the main qualm of conservative opponents of the research...
...breakthrough for its own purposes. For instance, Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy Karl Zinsmeister told The New York Times that “I don’t think there’s any doubt that the president’s drawing of lines on cloning and embryo use was a positive factor in making this come to fruition.” Far from helping the recent studies “come to fruition,” Bush’s policy decisions’ only effect has been to hinder the field of regenerative medicine...