Where the problem stems from...

...here are my thoughts.

This is all concerning stem cell research, but my thoughts quickly branched out into everything else.

Having a few handicapped friends back at college, I am not ignorant of the miracles stem cell research could perform. It would indeed be awesome if we could allow many to stand and walk again. At the same time, I can't condone the destruction of embryos for the sake of the research.

This relates to my stance on abortion. I draw the line at conception, because once conception starts a human being is beginning to be formed for certain. If nothing is done, one will come about. Before conception there is the possibility of a human being, but if nothing is done, no human being forms. I draw the line at conception because anywhere afterward is ambiguous and impossible to decide upon.

Because of my stance, the human embryos used in stem cell research demand my protection. They are on their way to childhood, and destroying them is detroying human life.

You can argue that the stem cell research will be able to cure many problems. But a lot of those problems aren't fatal ones. There may be exceptions, but it looks to me to be the killing of one or many lives for no other reason than to improve someone else's.

This relates greatly to my own struggles concerning God, goodness, and choice. The argument goes that for authentic love, that love must be chosen and not forced. To accomplish this in us, God created us with a choice. We could choose to follow him, or not to. The issue starts when the problem comes up that there are a great many people in this world who will not ever hear the word of God. How do they choose when there is no choice? The system only works if everyone has at least one chance to say yes or no to God. Otherwise God is not good, because he is creating people destined to hell without a choice in the matter. I will not talk about how I'm resolving that here, as it isn't necessary.

The same problem of choice affects stem cell research. The embryos are having a choice made for them. They aren't volunteering to die for others, they are being forced to before they can make such a choice. It's just short of creating people, slaves if you will, for the sake of raising them to be slaughtered for organ donations. There are people who need organ transplants to live, and each of these slaves could probably save at least five lives. But I can't sit well with the idea because these slaves who are otherwise people don't get a choice in the matter.

In the same way I can't condone an abortion unless the mother will certainly (and I mean 100% no doubt about it certainty) die without it and possibly the baby, I can't condone the killing of embryos unless there is a direct connection between each specific embryo and someone else's death. Stem cell research is only a maybe. It is a possibility that stem cell research can find cures, not a certainty. Even were it so, there isn't a direct connection between a batch of embryos and Joe Shmoe, because Joe Shmoe would have died of his illness or remained paralyzed whether or not the batch of embryos had ever existed.

In the end, I disagree with selfishly choosing for someone death in order to satisfy what isn't a necessity for life. Whether that is an abortion to save a career, or a cure for those like my friends.