A new study, led by Dr. George Q. Daley of the Children's Hospital of Boston, uses a procedure known as parthenogenesis in which a series of chemical treatments are used to encourage an unfertilized egg to begin embryonic development.
This scientific research led to the obtaining of some Stem Cells but as usual the developing embryo had to be destroyed.
Is a God's hand also involved in such an embryos growth?
Is it a sin to destroy a growing embryo only if growth is stimulated by artificial insemination with a sperm's chemicals rather than with non spermatic chemicals?
2006-12-15 01:13:07 · 24 answers · asked by dollparty.geo 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Why, with all due respect, is manipulating human cell even considered potentially a sin yet putting down the family dog is not? The cell has no capacity to suffer, the dog does. I'm all for the belief that to kill is simply and unquestionably wrong. But having decided some killing is acceptable, there's got to be a different standard. If I can justify killing a HUGE fish for a tuna sandwich, I can rationalize using embryonic stem cells for even only potential therapeutic gains. That fish dies of asphyxiation and you know that to the extent that a fish can suffer, it does. The embryo does not. I can explain it to my god, I can explain it to yours if you'd like (but let's be honest, the creation of sin in this case is the work of man, not god - it is the churches only nod to science in the last 100 years).
2006-12-15 01:50:46 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
What people don't seem to realize is that the embryonic stem cells most scientists want to use are frozen ones that are being discarded from invitro facilities. The conservative media would have you believe otherwise. Embryonic stem cells weren't even isolated until the late 90's and since then there has been a moratorium on embryonic stem cell research. If the "cells" and yes that is all they are, cells, are going to be discarded anyway, why not use them to help develop cures for paralysis and diseases?
EDIT: I don't know how many people on this site have loved ones suffering from paralysis or disease, but I somehow imagine that if YOU or your child might be saved by stem cell research you would support it. I think the majority of us would not hesitate to "play God" if we could save a loved ones life.
2006-12-15 01:21:28 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The first thing to consider is that an unfertilized egg is *not* a human life. Human stem cells come in two types:
-embryonic stem cells, derived from blastocysts, and
-adult stem cells, derived from umbilical cord blood or bone marrow.
Stem cells can be readily grown and transformed into several specialized tissues - like muscles or nerves - then used in medical therapies. *No* babies are killed in this process.
To see what Dr. Daley and others are doing to help children world-wide, please visit:
http://www.childrenshospital.org/cfapps/research/data_admin/Site799/mainpageS799P1.html
2006-12-15 01:26:03 · answer #3 · answered by Yngona D 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I dont think so. In the bible it states that at 1st breath God recognizes birth and at last breath is death. So although it is human life in the embryo I don't believe God recognizes it as a spiritual being until it's 1st breath. I've researched this alot in the bible. This is my observation from learning the bible in its original language and context translation to English. Alot of the bible is misinterpreted not so much by language as by the grammer used at the time 1st active indicative, participles and so on.
I believe it is all in Genesis also.
2006-12-15 01:22:08 · answer #4 · answered by sassinya 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Of course it is. As soon as a sperm and egg meet and become one cell it immediately starts beating and thumping with life! I saw it on the Discovery Channel and it is unreal! I think God breathes life into it and puts a soul in it right away.
2006-12-15 01:25:36 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think this is one of those "not seeing the forest for the trees" deals.
If man is tinkering with stem cells from developing embryos, growing them to a point and then killing them, then in essence, man is creating life.
I think many calamities have been brought upon man by their desire to be as powerful as God and Nature. A sin? Well, I'm not religious, but we will pay for this. Just as we paid for nuclear and atomic weapons and power. Just as we are paying, and will continue to pay for GM foods. Just as we pay for not sustaining the Earth as we take and manufacture and pollute. We will pay.
2006-12-15 01:23:50 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes, God values life as something precious...even if the life has not yet breathed! It would be considered a sin in God's eyes if you were take a life of an embryo.
2006-12-15 01:15:46 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
I think of it like this:
if you were to take a seed, and plant it in the ground, and at the stages it was beginning to form, and the seed were just opening up to a plant...and that plant, at that very stage was needed to cure a little plant that was diseased and dying, would you pluck out that seed that was just starting to grow, or would you let the other young plant die?
2006-12-15 01:25:40 · answer #8 · answered by apple 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I believe so, yes. There are other ways to get stem cells that do not require working with embryos. I support those methods.
2006-12-15 01:17:52 · answer #9 · answered by sister steph 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
This is a sin. We should not be playing God. embryos are babies. I don't care what anyone says, or how they get them to grow. In the book of Jeremiah, God told him that He knew him before he even formed him in the womb.
2006-12-15 01:20:30 · answer #10 · answered by Jesus junkie 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋