Cloning Ban Would Criminalize Research
Re “House Approves Strict Ban on Human Cloning,” Aug. 1: It is inconceivable that stem cell researchers could be prosecuted as criminals for discovering facts that will improve our quality of life. Scientific research is based on factual evidence requiring quantifiable evidence upon which it can be judged and objectively challenged to verify its usefulness. Opinions, on the other hand, are something you hold without the need for justification or proof. In a court of law, facts are allowable as evidence to convict, opinions are not.
It is a fact that embryonic stem cells have the potential to cure many diseases. It is an opinion as to whether blastocysts have a soul, unverifiable by any known experiment. It is a fact that suffering will be prolonged and death will be hastened for sentient human beings (100 trillion cells) needlessly because of the opinion that a cluster of 16 cells has a soul.
The real crime is that anyone would even suggest that dedicated professionals could go to jail for working to end such suffering.
Phil Beauchamp
Chino Hills
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At every stage of development, a human being (whether zygote, morula, blastocyst, embryo, fetus, infant or adult) retains its identity as an enduring being. From conception, we are distinct and self-directing.
Humans belong to the realm of “being,” not to the realm of “having.” Vast suffering has been caused by the philosophy that humans belong to the realm of having--from slavery to genocide. A utilitarian scientific interest reduces human life to a mere commodity. Without a principle of inherent human dignity, human beings would amount to no more than property to be enslaved, dismembered or mutilated to serve the interests of others. If a utilitarian philosophy were allowed to define human dignity, it does not take much imagination to see where “a compelling state interest” would take our nation, especially when bureaucrats would begin to add up the cost of caring for the old, the disabled and others.
Human beings are not property to be manufactured for use. Human life has dignity because it is the image of God, not because of any utilitarian purpose.
Bruce Colbert
Corona del Mar
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Regarding stem cell research, it is important that we not let politics interfere with scientific progress. There is a historical example to illustrate how this mistake can affect a nation’s scientific stature and advancement. I refer to the Lysenko period in the Soviet Union, when for political reasons it was deemed that environment rather than heredity was the basis of human development. Scientists were forbidden to do research on genetics. The USSR fell behind the rest of the world in biological research, and it took decades to repair this damage. If the U.S. clamps down on stem cell research, other nations will continue their research in this field, and the U.S. will become a follower instead of a leader in developing new cures for many diseases. The U.S. deserves better than this!
Howard Devorkin
Santa Maria
