September 17, 2007

Here's a short followup to my post from Aug. 27. ABC News has a quote from a scientist who acknowledges that part of the intent of the project is to get more stem cell lines because women aren't donating many egg cells. I think the problem here is less likely to be some sort of cow-human hybrid running around our streets. I think the problem is more likely to be, assuming this procedure even works, humans killing thousands of cow-humans in the embryotic stage of their life and harvesting their stem cells. As I suggested in my Aug. 27 post, this research seems much more likely to lead to human farms, or cow-human farms, than to any sort of cure for incurable diseases.

Human farms sound far-fetched, and sometimes we hear assurances that no one intends to make a human farm. Human farms turn out to be unnecessary if in-vitro fertilization couples can be convinced to treat their own children as livestock. StemLifeLine, a company, plans to make a profit by convincing people to kill their own in-vitro fertilized babies on the chance that embryonic stem cells' vaporware treatments will come true. One of the saddest parts of the article is that they've found a market. One family is interested in having a baby, and in having another baby and killing it to use it as a source of stem cell supplies for the future. It's a horrifying combination of vampirism and child sacrifice. And here we've been told that scientism leads to enlightened men who would never pass their children through the fire or embrace cannibalism.

The news isn't all bad. Germany is prepared to actually take a moral stand and is funding non-embryonic stem cell research. The article doesn't say this, but not only is their investment more moral, it'll probably actually produce results too.