We don't need no steenking Stem Cells!

Stem Cells are back in the news again! Of course this is not really shocking, the politics behind cells are very well known. The pro-life side is adament that everybody should agree with them, that human life begins when you think about having sex, and that anything short of that is a moral sin. The other side is more reasonable.

Now allow me to defend that statement. NOBODY on the other side is saying that people have to use stem cells. Nobody is saying that doctors can force people to accept treatment that involves stem cells. But the pro-life side IS saying that even if stem cells can help you, too friggin bad. You can not use them. You have to be able to afford to travel to Europe and pay for your treatment with cash, which the people in power can afford to do.

The problem is that the rest of the world is not so hung up in this issue. Other nations already allow stem cell research. We run the very real risk of LOOSING our top researchers and doctors when they move to another country because they can not do anything in the USA. We run the risk of not being the nation on the cutting edge anymore.

If I need a new kidney or liver, and stem cells can make one for me - I want that kidney. If I have a spinal cord injury, I want it fixed. I do not want some moralist telling me some bullshit about what they believe I should do.

Do you think that even the most hard line pro-lifer would not do whatever they could to save someone they loved? Do you think that any of them would tell their child "sorry, god wants you to live for the rest of your life in a wheel chair on a ventalator because you hit your head in the car accident"?? Well maybe some would, but most would do what any parent would do - tell the doctors to do whatever they could. And if the answer was to use stem cells, I bet that their moral views would change, long enough for their child to be helped. Then it would be back to business as usual. The people leading the "choose life" movement can afford to seek medical care in other nations that allow stem cell research, so even if they block such treatment in the USA they can decide to take a family vacation to Canada or Europe - and while there maybe visit a doctor secretly.

On the other hand, if you need some treatment and the doctors tell you that the treatment requires the use of stem cells - you can still assert your moral beliefs. You can refuse treatment. You can say "no thanks, I am not no baby killer". You can choose death or a life in a wheelchair attached to an iron lung for yourself, your spouse, or your children. That is what America is all about - you having the right to decide for yourself what is best for you and your family!

I am just asking that you DO NOT choose the same for me. I am an adult, I can make my own choices. I do not need, nor do I want, your "moral guidence".