Embryonic Stems

President Obama lifted the Bush imposed ban on embryonic stem cell research. Read about it all here. I don't care to get into the details of the science involved.

What I am interested in, however, is what many Rightwing pundits/commentators/politicians are saying about it (they said the same things years ago when Bush first put the ban in place). For example,

- in my trusty Washington Post yesterday: Yuval Levin (who?) writes here that "If (as modern biology informs us) conception initiates a human life, and if (as the Declaration of Independence asserts) every human life is equally deserving of some minimal protections,..." blah blah blah. Yuval further writes "But if you think an embryo is not quite a person, or that its immaturity or inability to suffer pain or its other qualities mean that destroying an embryo does not amount to taking a life, the promise of stem cell..." blah blah blah.

Hmm. So, "modern biology informs us" that conception initiates a "human life". Really? Do I think that an embryo is "not quite a person" or that its "immaturity or inability to suffer pain" is the issue. Well....conflating "immaturity" with "inability to suffer pain" is completely asinine.

- or (from the WaPo article above) "Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.), the House Republican whip, said in a statement that "today's action is about forcing taxpayers to fund ethically troublesome -- and unproven -- research that destroys life.""

Life?

- I also read (I can't remember where--major faux pas) somebody refer to the embryos being "left over" or "discarded" or whatever and he used nefarious quotes...presumably to make us readers think something fishy is going on.

Well, I have no intention of really getting into a takedown of these commentators or writers. I don't really care. I just think it's interesting how much a person learns by going through infertility treatments. The idea that an embryo is a human life and life begins at conception (LBAC) is laughable to me...tragically laughable, i.e., it's not funny. The IM and I, if life begins at conception, have had about 2 dozen children. Of course, none of them lived for more than about 30-40 hours or so but, well, whatever. The whole LBAC thing is absurd. I, perhaps, could be persuaded that LBA-implantation? Maybe at implantation...maybe...because before that happens these embryos don't have a chance. In the past, people called IVF babies "test tube" babies but they weren't actually grown in a fricken test tube. The mother is CRUCIAL.

Oh, and "discarded" embyros. We haven't been so lucky to have "leftovers". We've used them all and they all didn't amount to jack shit. But, I certainly know of instances where there where "leftovers". Pretty much every person who completes a successful IVF cycle has leftovers. Then they try to use those (which are frozen) for another cycle later on. After their child having days are over these leftovers are discarded. The reason they are discarded instead of donated is because in almost all instances, especially in CA, one has to retain a lawyer and jump through all kinds of hoops to donate. It's easier to throw them away. We would donate if we could.

...I'm off track. My final point is that these commentators have no idea what they are talking about. Life does NOT begin at conception. Just like pretty much everything in science or life or art or music or whatever it is impossible to pinpoint a moment to say "ah ha! life just began right then". It's a bit more complicated and delicate than that.