Advocates of embryonic stem cell research (who, by the way, are waiting impatiently for President Obama to reverse President Bush's limitation on the kinds of research the federal government will fund) seem almost not to welcome alternatives to embryonic research. It's as if agreeing to pursue other methods acknowledges a moral problem they wish to deny. Their arguments in favor of using embryos attempt to minimize the moral weight of the situation. "These are embryos left over from the in vitro fertilization process. No one is using them anyway. They might as well be used for the betterment of mankind."
Hmm. Well, the cheerleaders for embryonic research probably are the same people who don't want to drill for oil in ANWR. Never mind that the tiny patch of permafrost is not being used anyway -- can't be used for anything else as a matter of fact. Never mind that it could reduce our dependence on other sources of oil. The principle of maintaining nature's purity is too important.
The "nobody wants them" argument is morally bankrupt, but completely consistent with our culture -- a culture that grants human dignity only to those people who are "wanted." A couple a weeks ago, as National Review's Jay Nordlinger noticed, a Florida woman visited an abortion clinic for a late -- 23 weeks -- second trimester abortion. Instead, her daughter was accidentally born alive (what the AP called a "badly botched abortion"). After the squalling infant was delivered, an owner of the clinic cut the umbilical cord, and tossed the baby into the trash. Now police are investigating. Murder charges may be filed.
This is Alice in Wonderland territory. That's what our abortion culture has given us. It is perfectly legal to perform an abortion at 23 weeks gestation, an age when other babies have survived outside the womb. But if the child is accidentally delivered alive first, it's murder. "She came face to face with a human being," the woman's lawyer explained to the AP. "And that changed everything." Nonsense. It changed nothing. But this woman is hardly alone. The majority that favors harvesting human embryos for their stem cells is engaging in the same kind of self-delusion: If I don't look at it, it's not there. They can flatter themselves all they want that they are "pro-science," but in fact they are trampling upon human dignity.