I am so happy Joe Biden defended stem cell research. I did the same thing in 2005. I think the column I wrote in a conservative Texas newspaper (plus maybe the Christmas column I wrote about showing some compassion for gays) probably had a lot to do with my departure from a brief tryst with journalism.
Those columns were quite a shock to the readership, I'm sure, because most of what I wrote was pure humor, without political implications. They loved that, but they didn't "cotton" to being disagreed with on their "faith."
I'm reprinting the column over the fold for the first time.
Heather and Doug Hutchens of Argyle have my respect for supporting what they believe with a lifelong commitment. Featured in a July 15 article in The Messenger, they adopted 17 surplus embryos from an in-vitro fertilization "frozen orphanage."
One implantation attempt resulted in twins Sam and Ben. Another produced a son, David. Heather Hutchens believes that her pro-life and conservative views, shared by the biological family of the embryos, were instrumental in their being chosen as the adoptive parents.
Although I don't share the Hutchenses religious views, I'm happy they were able to use this program to add to their family. I do not equate frozen embryos with living human beings. Nor do I believe embryonic stem cell research kills people.
The good news is, what the Hutchenses did is not incompatible with stem cell research. The bad news is, most frozen embryos simply sit in perpetuity, unused for either purpose.
So, I feel an obligation to represent the children who have been forgotten in this debate, those children already born into this world - children like Joshua Eaton, a victim of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
Like Joshua's life, his Web site at www.skyenet/~ceaton is short. Please take a moment and visit it.
Joshua's story is only one grain of sand from a mountain of human misery. It tears at my soul to think that delaying embryonic stem cell research may sentence millions of Joshuas to an early death.
You may believe that every embryo is a human being. The evidence suggests that even God - or nature, if you prefer - believes otherwise. The experience of the Hutchenses illustrates the point.
Of the 17 embryos they adopted, two resulted in live births. Two remain. What happened to the other 13?
According to Dr. Sherman J. Silber of the Infertility Clinic of St. Louis, the vast majority of human embryos are chromosomally abnormal. That is why even fertile couples have only a 15-20 percent chance per month of conceiving. They will either never implant to produce a pregnancy, or they will implant, produce a pregnancy, but then miscarry in the first trimester.
Embryos are human life in the sense an acorn is a tree or a lump of coal is a diamond. A great deal of environmental input is required before one becomes the other.
In the case of an embryo, the input is a mother and a successful pregnancy. Few embryos are chosen, either in nature or in the in vitro laboratory, for pregnancy and transformation from potential to actual life.
Embryos used in stem cell research are a few days old, when they consist of 50-150 cells and are smaller than the head of a pin. They have no organs.
In fact their scant cells are undifferentiated, meaning they have not specialized into any of the 200 cell types in a human body. The cells in your fingernail have more human characteristics than those in a five-day-old embryo.
Although fundamentalist religious views are usually associated with embryonic stem cell research, there are others. Jesus said in Matthew 9:13, "It isn't your sacrifices and your gifts I want - I want you to be merciful." To think God condones the sacrifice of living, suffering human beings so that specks of unthinking, unfeeling protoplasm might rot in a freezer is inconceivable to me.
The research will not be stopped. Even in the United States, private research is being done, but limits on federal funding puts us behind South Korea in our commitment to the science. That lack of funding can only delay eventual cures.
In a recent Star-Telegram article, Dr. Beverly Nuckols, a board member of the Texas Alliance for Life, said, "I'm all for stem cell research. I'm just not going to kill anybody for it."
I wonder if it ever occurred to Dr. Nuckols that if her actions delay the cure for diseases like childhood leukemia, she will have indeed killed somebody?
When I stand before my maker to answer for what I'm saying here, some will undoubtedly call for my condemnation. I take great comfort in my faith that Joshua Eaton will be a witness in my defense.