This is regarding “The latest frontier in stem-cell debate” (News, Aug. 1). The story quotes Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice, endorsing embryonic stem-cell research on the grounds that “We don’t believe that stem cells are human beings.”
Her comment arises either from ignorance or the desire to obfuscate the ethical issue central to the debate. Opponents of embryonic stem-cell research are not resistant to it because stem cells are human beings but, rather, because the embryos that must be destroyed in the process of extracting stem cells are.
The only way to justify such taking of human life is to insist that only humans who appear and function in certain ways are worthy of being protected. That’s a very dangerous path to take since, depending on who determines what traits qualify, the late President Ronald Reagan may have ceased being a valuable human being long before his death.
