Massacres of 'Human Life' in Fertility Clinics Happen All The Time!

[leftchick]

Where is the GOP outrage? I actually went through four IVF attempts and countless IUIs before becoming pregnant. I am very aware of how eggs are harvested and "bad looking" embryos discarded.
It is interesting that this has not come up yet.....


<snip>

President Bush and other Americans who oppose embryonic stem cell research say they believe that the destruction of a human embryo, even in the process of research to reduce human suffering, is immoral. It is immoral, they say, because human life begins at conception, therefore destruction of a human embryo equals the taking of life.

Curiously, opponents of embryonic stem cell research raise no serious objection to fertility clinics, the source of the embryos used in embryonic stem cell research. At fertility clinics, many human eggs are routinely removed from women and fertilized in the hope that one of the resulting embryos can be implanted in the uterus and produce a baby. Some of the unused embryos are frozen for possible use later, but most are discarded.

If scientists performing research on cells derived from the early cell division of human embryos are taking life, the fertility clinics are guilty of repeated massacres. However, no one has introduced legislation to ban the technique used by fertility clinics because the clinics' services appeal to the many couples who have difficulty having children.

<snip>

President Bush, who cannot explain why it's OK for popular fertility clinics to destroy unused human embryos but immoral to use those unneeded cells to reduce the pain and prolong the lives of millions of sufferers, should resist his temptation to veto the bill and, instead, sign it into law.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/4053084.html

[spartan61]

1. I was glued to C-Span yesterday watching the Senate debate on

stem cell research. Using the fantastically promising embryonic stem cells for medical research, with an eye to healing diseases IS pro-life. It is certainly more pro-life than tossing them in the garbage, which is what will happen to the leftover embryos. Indeed, expanded stem cell research is the joining of science, hope, reason, and compassion, and is the right thing for us all. There is a petition at http://go.care2.com/e/LdC/Ny/JtC_ Please sign it to let the Senate know that we want this important legislation. Bush has vowed to veto it, but how would he feel if one of his daughters needed this research to help cure a devasting disease. If that were to be the case, I'm sure his thinking on this would be much different.

[leftchick]

2. I heard a stupid ass quote from bush on NPR yesterday

he said he would not sign a bill that "destroys life in order to preserve life". This from a man who is personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. He should have said preserve 'pre-born' life.

Thank you for the link.

[Seabiscuit]

5. Yup. The religious right paints itself into a lot of self-contradictions:

They oppose embryo donation. But they haven't complained yet about discarding unused embryos or poorly formed embryos at IVF clinics. So it's OK to discard them but not OK to donate them so that one may become a human being some day? And it's not OK to use them in research rather than discard or donate them?

Extremists always seem to paint themselves into such corners.

[CrispyQ]

3. Selective morality. How convenient for them.

snip...

The harm done by misguided opposition to embryonic stem cell research goes beyond distorting the proper use of federal funds for medical science. In May it prevented the Texas House from even considering bond money to build a biomedical research center at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.


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This is totally off topic, but is it alarming that so many couples have difficulty conceiving? Or is this normal?

[leftchick]

4. I am not sure

When I was trying twleve years ago I felt very alone. There have been studies done and some suggest the number of infertile couple is indeed rising. Hormones in the environment is one possible explaination. In my case it was exposure to DES in-utero in the first trimester. I never ovulated without Artificial Reproductive technology.

Interestingly I now have normal cycles after two babies. Aren't I lucky? Now when I don't want them!

[dmkinsey]

6. Well, your problem is that you seem to expect conservatives to

be consistent in their ethical positions.
Such is not the case. They adopt whatever ethical position most strongly enhances their electoral position.

[Tesla]

7. Kinda like passages in the Bible

[nealmhughes]

8. Tom Harkin pointed out on the floor yesterday that there were thousands

of fertilized zygotes in liquid nitrogen that the "potential parents" didn't want to pay cold storage for any longer, so they just put them down the drain!

Said that was the waste right there and utter hypocricy that people wanted to spawn so badly that they paid tens of thousands of dollars of multiple invitro "pencil points" to be frozen/implanted to have their own genetic material duplicated, and then to flush them not to pay storage instead of using the pencil points to be used in a method that could not produce a human without implantation into a uterus.