An incisive new Op-Ed from David Holcberg and Alex Epstein, writing for the Ayn Rand Institute, begins:
In the name of the sanctity of human life and the inviolability of rights, embryonic stem cell research must be allowed to proceed unimpeded.
It is widely known that embryonic stem cell research has the potential to revolutionize medicine and save millions of lives. Yet many Congressmen are frantically working to defeat a measure that would expand federal financing of this research. Why are they (and so many others) opposing embryonic stem cell research–and doing so under the banner of being “pro-life”?
The opponents of embryonic stem cell research claim that their position is rooted in “respect for human life.” They say that the embryos destroyed in the process of extracting stem cells are human beings with a right to life.
But embryos used in embryonic stem cell research are manifestly not human beings–not in any rational sense of the term. These embryos are smaller than a grain of sand, and consist of at most a few hundred undifferentiated cells. They have no body or body parts. They do not see, hear, feel, or think. While they have the potential to become human beings–if implanted in a woman’s uterus and brought to term–they are nowhere near actual human beings.
See the full article for more details.