Test Tube Embryos Can Live Longer than 14 Days


As stem cell research advances, some old taboos are being dropped. One is a rule that an egg fertilized in a petri dish has to be destroyed after 14 days. The rule is a law in England but a volunteer standard among scientists in the U.S. It has been the standard practice for a few decades.

Now, the professional society of stem cell research says experiments that could lead to life saving drugs and medicines need to use the embryos longer than 14 days. A consensus is building to make the volunteer agreed upon standard longer in the U.S. Presumable this will trigger the law in England to extend the length also. 

There is an irony in the voluntary standard set, not by government, but by private scientists who are left to their own ethics for such a decision. If conservative had brought stem cell research under government funding and control they would at this moment have a seat at the table to voice their views on this issue. Since they, especially the Catholic Church, drew a line in the sand that said using petri dish embryos for any purpose is evil the research has been done outside the reach of government.

Just a day ago another Bishop pontificated that abortion was the greatest sin of all the evil sins. An egg fertilized by a sperm cell in a petri dish is the same as one fertilized in the womb. When one the in the petri dish is no longer needed, 14 days or 28 days, it is sent down the drain. To the anti abortion crowd this has to be murder because the cell became a human-in-a-petri-dish when fertilization happened. The view one fertilized cell is a human being is simply unsustainable and the petri dish makes it ever so obvious.

It's too bad leaders in religion, who basically run businesses, cannot master the fundamental business techniques known to non religious businesses since forever. A big one is hedging one's bets. Grain traders and farmers sell futures because they know prices fluctuate. Stock market investors buy stock in many different industries because they know business cycles help and hurt some stocks at different times. 

The Catholic Church has put all of its money on abortion. A large branch of fundamentalist Protestants put all of their money on the reelection of Trump. It's always better to spread allegiance around so that when one issue or candidate keels over your group can claim it was always about something else anyway so that one doesn't matter. 

Extending the life of a petri dish embryo is an example of practical thinking done by scientists and lacking in parts of Christianity.

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