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They say that it takes a village to raise a child. But lately, it seems that the very same child is needed for certain villagers to survive. And in this case, this child is not even born yet. Embryotic stem cell lines, ES cell lines for short, are cultures of cells derived from the epiblast tissue of the inner cell mass of a blastocyst or earlier morula stage embryos. A blastocyst is an early stage embryo, approximately four to five days old in humans and consisting of 50–150 cells. Nearly all research to date has taken place using mouse embryonic stem cells or human embryonic stem cells. Both have the essential stem cell characteristics, yet they require very different environments in order to maintain an undifferentiated state. Medical researchers believe that stem cell therapy has the potential to dramatically change the treatment of human disease. A number of adult stem cell therapies already exist, particularly bone marrow transplants that are used to treat leukemia. In the future, medical researchers anticipate being able to use technologies derived from stem cell research to treat a wider variety of diseases including cancer, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries, and muscle damage, amongst a number of other impairments and conditions. However, the Catholic Church views this as immoral, and has been debating over the procedures for quite some time. The Catholic Church’s objection is to creating life this way—whether the embryo is successfully implanted or used only for research. In either case, a human life is created but deliberately prevented from reaching its full potential. In Missouri, a nonprofit organization that advocates greater funding for stem-cell research has made contributions to the campaigns of state candidates. This has upset the Missouri Catholic Conference which is demanding that Catholic politicians return the money... or else. This has led to charges of illegal political interference against the Catholic group. “So much agreement on fundamental approaches to human morality, yet disagreement on specific moral rules, is not surprising,” says Margaret Farley, Ph.D in an interview for Fordham University. “For one thing, affirmations of the goodness of creation, human freedom of agency, and principles of justice and care do not always yield directly deducible recommendations on specific questions like stem cell research.” Whether or not the Catholic Church sides with stem cell research, mankind will always find room to advance themselves here on earth. Some people might find these advances unethical or immoral.
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