[robinjoe]

You have to understand that there are many people in America and throughout the world who believe that human embryos are humans entitled to the full protection of the law.

To these people, killing human embryos to extract stem cells is murder. It has nothing to do with religion, it has to do with right and wrong.

Some people have the world-view that these embryos are not humans, and therefore are not worthy of protection. But that means they are imposing their world-view (aka religion) on the embryos as they kill them.

If you want to take world-view, social pressure, and religion out of the equation and rely entirely on science, then the scientific evidence supports the beliefe that the human embryos are indeed human.

1) They have their own DNA, unique from the mother. In a court of law, if the the embryo's DNA was found at the crime scene, the mother wouldn't be convicted because the embryo isn't her.

2) As soon as the fetus forms blood cells, the blood type may be different from the mothers. Once again, in a court of law they would be considered unique persons.

3) Embryos survive without the mother, and are therefore "self sufficient". They need life support, but then again so do new-born babies, but no one can argue that new-born babies aren't human.

4) Premature babies are being delivered successfully at a younger and younger age. At some point we will be able to have "test-tube" babies independant of the mother. At what point of gestation will it be considered human?

There is no need to attack any religious group when discussing this. This is a matter of morals, not religion, and it is the responsibility of government to regulate morals. Otherwise, murder would be legal.

Finaly, keep in mind that Bush is not banning human embryonic stem-cell research, he is just preventing taxe dollars from being taken from the people who believe that the embryos are human. Private funding is still available for this research.

Gary, I'm sorry about your son. My wife has diabetes, and her mother died from complications due to diabetes. However, if I had a disease that might be cured by killing the kid down the street, or in another country, that would be unthinkable. If you start from that perspective, you can start to understand the other side of the argument.

With best regards to you and your family,
Joe