The other day when I went to my doctor's appointment, I noticed in the office pamphlets promoting the creation of cord blood stem cell banks. As in animal experimentation, we are being lazy regarding the materials used. Given the amount of births a day in the United States alone, how many of those parents actually create a cord blood bank? And out of those that do not, what happens to the tissues? Disposed as bio hazardous waste? One must question why society is even arguing about the source of stem cells from embryos, when the research matter is available via natural processes that take place every day.
I feel that this subject of embryonic stem cell research coincides closely with one's view on abortion. When does life truely start? The moment of fertilization? The thrid trimester? neurulization? Although I do not know, I strongly feel that when methods other than creating and destroying a life are availible, they should be utilized. Although the unknown is often misunderstood and misinterpreted, the physical control with a lack of ethical control is a frightening thing. The same prinicple underlies the reason that there are still two cultures of smallpox existing as potential biochemical weapons. Lack of control. Why do we still hold on to our capacity to destroy when we have so much potential to create?
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I think that we still hold on to this capacity to destroy because that is all we have known for centuries as demonstrated by the countless years of war. People are afraid to try new things and new ideas are frightening. And because these ideas are frightening people are afraid to publish works on the subject of stem cell research and our ability to extract these cells from other sources. The debate is so heated over abortion that people are filling their need for war(fighting) by battling eachother over stem cells very narrow mindedly.
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