In class we came to an assumption that everyone agrees that stem cell research has potential to be beneficial to human, but the disagreement arises from the extraction of these cells and where these cells are extracted from. This debate is completely logical based upon the beliefs of different individuals and organizations due to differing beliefs upon ensoulment or potentiality or the symbolic nature of an embryo. However, the government made an ethical judgment on a debate that is far from over and banned public funding of stem cell research and are in review on whether to permanently outlaw the research. (For more information on the controversy the government faces see the article by The Times Higher Education Supplement).
I think that there is a possibility of a federal case trying to legalize embryonic stem cell research and attempting to receive a part of the $20 billion dollar US medical research budget. Since abortion is legal, an argument could be made that these embryos are being wasted and that if only these embryos were used the research labs should receive a part of the government budget. Is this ethical to extract these cells from these aborted embryos? Since there is no judgment upon the moral status of the human embryonic stem cells there will be no ethical judgment upon this matter, but until that time I think there is a possibility of this court case occurring. However, once the moral status of embryonic stem cells has been established, the talks of this case occurring become extremely plausible.
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Interesting post. There are countless hundreds of thousands of "pre-embryos" and embryos that will most likely end up in the trash. It is hardly rational to condemn stem cell research and not move at the same time to restrict in vitro fertilization and abortion.
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