You dont have to be Catholic to be... ...opposed to embryonic stem cell research (ESCR).

As Cathleen Kavenys post below on Robbie Georges pleas to U.S. Catholics made clear, one can hardly say embryonic stem cell before someone starts quoting Humanae Vitae. I propose that those opposed to ESCR try some other opposing arguments. Here are a few. Feel free to improve upon and add to them.

1. Economic: the commodification of body parts should be prohibited. Unlike China and a few other countries, the United States prohibits the sale of body parts for transplantation. This is good (whether all transplants are good is a separate question). Yet when it comes to reproductive materials (semen, eggs, and embryos), sales are way up. Market forces offer young women thousands of dollars for their eggs (after potentially dangerous hormone shots). Men are paid (not as much) for their semen. And if the ads in the NYTimes are bona fide, embryos (of blond, blue eyes children) are being sold too. All of this to cure the disease of infertility. What forces can or will keep embryos from becoming part of the medical/industrial research complex (share bought and sold on the commodities market)? What barriers will keep young men and women from selling their sperm and eggs and/or embryos not only for infertility but for research? What will keep the medical/industrial complex from charging anything it wants, in case it comes up with anything?

2. And speaking of the medical/industrial complex: Just as the military/industrial complex promises security if only we keep paying them a major proportion of our tax dollars, the medical/industrial complex keeps promising us longer and longer lives, maybe even immortality, if only we will cooperate with and pay for their research. Gone are the days when the medical ethic, Do no harm, reigned among doctors (even if they didnt always practice it). Today the ethic seems to be, well, lets try this, and see how it works. This applies to preventive pharmaceuticals as well as to stem-cell research. Just as the military does, medicine will always promise more than it can possibly deliveror understand.

3. And thenthe political. Why do so many politicians favor embryonic stem cell research? Pro-lifers favor it because they believe someday, somehow, somebody will benefit (all of this without any proof). In addition, they are under pressure from constituents with every genetic and chronic condition known to medicine; these constituents believe (also without proof) that a cure for their condition lies in ESCR. Pro-choicers favor ESCR for many of the same reasons plus their position on abortion makes it hard to oppose ESCR when they tolerate killing fetuses.

Now remember: no references to HV! What we want are winning arguments.

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