It seems as though there is a great deal of misinformation being disseminated regarding embryonic stem cell research. It’s that word “embryonic” that’s the stickler for us Catholics. The Church, consistent with its pro-life teaching regarding life as “human” from conception, whether in utero (womb) or in vitro (dish), to natural death, is opposed to embryonic cells as resources for stem cells. The following article by Betsy Hart appeared in the Oakland Press last month. I thinks she is right on the mark.

Stem cell advocates fail to consider moral issues
 I wasn’t surprised to see actress Mary Tyler Moore on Chris Matthew’s “Hardball” show extolling the breathtaking benefits that belong, alone according to her, embryonic stem cell research.
 It’s easy to see why people desperately want to believe that research currently in play would restore the health of those with chronic, degenerative or deadly diseases. (Moore herself struggles with diabetes.) My own mother succumbed with lightning speed to the cancer multiple myeloma six years ago - and how I would have loved to have believed that a cure was imminent.
 Such fundamental human desires are a big reason for the raging embryonic stem cell debate and the question President Bush faces now: Should such research be federally funded?
 Tragically, the profound ethical questions at stake are almost dismissed as proponents of such research doggedly pursue an “ends justifies the means” strategy. They argue that stem cells, sort of the body’s “master cells,” are most, if not exclusively, useful when they come from embryos - which are destroyed in the process.
 But it turns out such advocates have skipped the fundamental moral questions only to arrive at science - because stem cells from adults, umbilical cords and even fat have been shown to be astoundingly useful in research.
 This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Nonembryonic stem cells have proved useful for years. Umbilical cord stem cells have restored the immune systems of children ravaged by cancer.
 Cadaver brains have yielded stem cells that can be transformed into different kinds of brain and neuron cells, offering hope for victims of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Stem cells from fat have been changed into muscle, bone and cartilage.
 The question may really be: Do embryonic stem cells provide such a cache, or have they been entirely oversold to a willing public? A major stem cell study just reported in the journal Science showed that embryonic stem cells “are surprisingly genetically unstable, at least in mice,” as the Washington Post put it.
 So what is the agenda of at least some advocates pushing for federal funds for embryonic stem cell research, particularly those who know all this? Perhaps it’s as simple as money. Maybe it’s politics, especially the politics of abortion, or the desire to render human life in its earliest stages nothing but clinically useful “material.”
 Or perhaps some of them think they are “Masters of the Universe” who can’t, or shouldn’t, be slowed down by moral or scientific considerations.
 

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