Who says A must say B

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Jul 22, 2006

With admirable clarity the Wall Street Journal goes to the heart of the debate on embryonic stem-cell research recently conducted in the US Senate:

Our own view is that the embryos from which stem cells are collected have the potential to be-- but are not yet-- human beings. This is the dominant view across U.S. society, which is one reason there is little controversy over fertility treatments, in which embryos are routinely created and discarded. Private stem-cell research on these discarded embryos remains legal, and, contrary to much political spin, private funding is plentiful.

Right. But now suppose your "view" is that the embryo is a human being. (It's certainly a being, and it is human, so...) Then presumably you should want to raise some controversy over "fertility treatments, in which embryos are routinely created and discarded."

Why would it be acceptable to discard embryos in the fertility clinics but not in the research labs? And if it's not acceptable in either case, why is the pro-life movement concentrating its rhetorical fire exclusively on the stem-cell research?

Proponents of stem-cell research keep asking why, if we're so concerned about the destruction of embryos, we have quietly allowed in vitro fertilization to become so broadly accepted. Good question.