Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Life Links 9/18/07

Scott Klusendorf on Fred Thompson, Terri Schiavo and intrinsic dignity
True, they may come out of it. But that kind of thinking puts in place a premise that it's okay to kill people who don't improve. Truth is, Terri had no duty to get better. Her life had value as it was. Remember: The pro-life argument is that humans have intrinsic dignity simply because they are human, meaning Terri shouldn't have to get better to avoid being killed.


I missed the pro-embryonic stem cell research editorial by Nicole Reslock (nurse whose son has juvenile diabetes) that was printed in the Lansing State Journal on Sunday. Proponents of killing human embryos for research in Michigan have changed their rhetoric slightly. In the past, editorials typically claimed embryonic stem cell research was banned in Michigan. Now, Reslock claims "Michigan law prohibits embryonic stem cell research procedures." Those "embryonic stem cell research procedures" being killing human embryos for research and using the cloning technique somatic cell nuclear transfer to create cloned human embryos. Neither of these is an actual "stem cell research procedure." No research is actually being done on the stem cells when they are removed from a human embryo or when scientists attempt to create human embryos via cloning.

Reslock labels human embryos as "the cells" "doomed to be destroyed" and claims the beliefs of those opposed to killing human embryos for research are "jeopardiz(ing) the lives of so many innocent children."


Doctors in Germany claim to have successfully treated a man who suffered a severe heart attack with his own stem cells. Before the stem cell treatment, "the man spent seven weeks in the intensive care unit with no sign of improvement." The article also discusses Germany's law on killing embryos for research though I believe they mean "embryos" not "pre-existing stem cell lines."

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