Think

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Friday threw his support behind House-passed legislation to expand federal financing for human embryonic stem cell research, breaking with President Bush.

"It's not just a matter of faith, it's a matter of science," Frist, R-Tenn., said on the floor of the Senate.

clip from this morning's Yahoo News article

Good for Frist, finally a voice of reason. I'm glad this happened. Not only does this event potentially benefit my industry, it benefits anyone that has or may develop a life threatening illness.

I was reading more about this in the paper while in the student union building on campus.
Being shy and having a hard time meeting people, I've already chatted up the 2 guys sitting next to me. Both are furiously working on picking out Fall classes. During the lulls in the conversation I continue to read. When I finally finish the article I ask them how great they think this is.

"Its horrible, it like supporting murder!" -- cried out one, the other one, the smart one, remained silent.

"Murder?" -- I'm shocked, "What do you mean?"

"In order to get stem cells you have to murder a human life!", he says.

First, if you are not up to speed on stem cells, these are cells that are "blank", they can be made to grow up and be any kind of cell -- a liver cell (to replace a damaged liver), a muscle cell (to replace a damaged muscle) and I'm sure you can extrapolate from there. The issue with stem cell research has been where the scientific community gets their stash -- it comes from embryos collected at fertility and abortion clinics.

Familiar with this line of logic I baited him, "So what is your definition of alive?"

"Life begins at conception.", he professes.

"I'm sorry, apparently I've made a horrible assumption, I thought you were a student not an MD or PhD in Molecular Biology" -- you know I'm looking to make a point.

"Oh, I am a student, I will have my bachleors in Computer Science in December" -- proudly and defiantly said.

"And yet you still feel qualified to make the determination of when life begins."

The people opposed to stem cell research are usually self-branded as 'pro-life' and label stem cell use as encouraging the killing of a human life.

Heres the thing, there is a plethora of theories about when life begins; some say conception, some say at birth, some say at viability -- the point at which the embryo could survive outside of the womb. If life begins at the first sign of a brain wave, then life might begin at 6 weeks. If life begins at the first moment the embryo could hypothetically survive on its own, maybe life begins at 20 weeks. And so on. No one definition has surfaced as the de facto.

These debates rage on and mostly they are fought on a religious front, which is of course ridiculous since this is a question of biology, of medicine, not religion. And really, who cares? Is it of any importance that these people continue to play a game of tail wagging the academic dog? When music stops and one chairless opinion of 'when life begins' is jettisoned from the game, pouty-faced and emotionally scarred, will this make a difference? No, it doesnt matter.

Regardless of when life begins, the fact remains -- women will still have abortions and go to fertility clinics. Put aside your personal opinions of how things should be in an ideal world and stare bravely into the eyes of the steely-cold statistics -- this has been, is , and, if we extrapolate in the purest of mathematical terms, will always be the case. So what if abortions become illegal, even that is completely irrelevant. Do you really think people have stopped using illegal drugs because they are illegal? No, if anything, it just makes them all the more appealing. Look at any survey or study in which statistics have been compiled year over year - it happens, continues to increase, and it does so with a complete disregard for legality.

I guess the poor guy misinterpreted my sarcasm as anger, it wasnt.

"Hey, I didnt mean to piss you off." He said, looking a little sheepish.

"I'm not angry and honestly you aren't to blame, I think the university is."

"I dont get it?", I guess I had him really confused now, lol.

"Well, I'm sure after 4 years at this university you have great academic knowledge of computer science, which will probably land you a good job. However, it seems to me that the university system has failed you in a much more important way-- they didnt teach you how to think analytically."

With that said, I will end this diatribe, put away my soap box for this day and meet my friends for a pitcher of Sangria.

Namaste.