The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University, and a Jesuit priest, says the guidelines “will not satisfy those who want no embryonic stem cell research,” (including the Catholic Church) although “they do show the administration takes seriously the need for ethical guidelines for scientific research.”
Reese was particularly pleased, by “strong rules for informed consent,” and that “research will be limited to stem cell created from embryos that would have been destroyed anyway because they are no longer needed for (in vitro fertilization) purposes.” These rules match up with several of the criteria that Reese mentioned in March as ones he hoped to see when Obama lifted the research restrictions.[reference]
When you kill one innocent person you do not give a whit for ethical guidelines – you only care to show that you pretend to have such a scruple. Say for example there was a decision that a 100 prisoners were possibly slated to be harvested for their organs so as to save plenty of other people. Then they decided to restrict this to only five prisoners – would you say they had an ethical guideline? To be ethical is not to restrict the evil you do – but not to do any evil in the first place.
Of course there is one major problem with all the people in both sides of the political aisle who have talked about restricting embryonic stem-call research to use so-called leftover embryos from IVF. If there is every an actual breakthrough in ESCR then they will need a supply of embryos much larger than this to supply the demand because of tissue match problems and problems getting permission from the parents. So this type of “ethical” rule would be quickly tossed aside with such an event. To pretend that this is any kind of ethical restriction is a lie – it is purely political and will change in the future if they want it to. Fr. Reese is once again a useful idiot for the most pro-abortion administration ever.
Another thing is that that this is further cover for politicians. Outside of federal funding there are pretty much zero restrictions for other researchers. They can continue to attempt to clone embryos and experiment with embryos from other sources. There are no restrictions on them fertilizing eggs and creating their own embryos for experimentation.
5 comments
“If there is every an actual breakthrough in ESCR then they will need a supply of embryos much larger than this to supply the demand…”
Looks like it’s almost here.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0584115420070605
I give it, oh, about ten minutes before we start hearing how the Catholic Church hates the blind.
I wonder what he would think of restricting ESCR so that embryos which were going to be fertilized would be protected as well?
I give it, oh, about ten minutes before we start hearing how the Catholic Church hates the blind.
Give it fifteen, when we learn the ESCs are still rampantly teratogenic, and we’ll start hearing how the Catholic Church was poo-pooing ESCR just so it could say “I told you so.”
“research will be limited to stem cell created from embryos that would have been destroyed anyway because they are no longer needed for (in vitro fertilization) purposes.”
Hell, why not make them into lampshades and bars of soap while we’re at it? They’re going to die anyway!
Gee, sounds kinda familiar.
I predict you will see a decrease in the cost for IVF because research firms will subsidize it under the condition that excess eggs be fertilized and then given to the researchers.