This startling graph from 2005 shows how much of an impact a person's religious views influence the decision of whether he or she agrees with stem cell research. Out of those who disagree with the research, over half hold their religious beliefs responsible for their decision. Many of the opponents believe that using embryos for scientific research is destroying human life. Catholics, for example, believe humans become “human” from the moment of contraception. As I have previously stated, the Pope believes using human embryo’s for stem cell research violates “the dignity of human life.”
As Lawton states in an interview, “The Bible talks about valuing life, but the Good Samaritan tries to go out of his way to alleviate suffering. What kind of determination do you make to determine which trumps which value?” Here, Lawton argues whether it is right to destroy human embryo’s, which can be considered “devaluing” life, or to use the embryo’s to search for cures for diseases which will help “alleviate suffering” for many humans. The interpretation of the Bible and a person’s beliefs are personal matters where Americans have the right to their own opinion. A person’s decision on whether to support embryonic stem cell research is mainly based on how he or she regards embryonic life.
2 comments:
my religious views do play a big role in how i look into this matter. i do believe that the embryo is human from the moment it is conceived. this embryo will grow and have the right to life. i do however believe that through safe research some embryos should be used to try and find cures for diseases that we have today. if this research is harmful and will kill the embryo i cannot say that i will support it. i just feel like that is killing someone before giving them the chance to live and i do not feel llike it is right.
It all depends on your view of when an embryo becomes human. However, the use of embryonic stem cells can tremendously help with the research to find cures to harmful diseases. Using embryonic stem cells instead of human adult cells allows researchers to harvest the stem cells to any type of other cell. These can be defined as "blank cell" of which I stated previously. Adult cells can only be used at “face value” and can not be manipulated into other cells giving scientists the ability to experiment farther with embryonic cells rather than adult. Therefore, a personal view is what determines if a person agrees with the use of embryonic cell research, and religious views play a major impact his or her decision.
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