The thing about stem-cell research is a lot of people don't really know what it is. There's adult stem cell research which basically usually uses bone marrow. This is rarely contested and has been studied (and to some extent used) for years. There's also embryonic stem cell research, which is usually what people are talking about even though they may not understand the difference. This is what people get all hot over.
What gets me is that a lot of people who realize the difference and are opposed to embryonic just pretty much stopped their research there because it seems like it's science that backs up their moral argument. You'll usually hear two arguments from these people:
1.) why use embryonic when we can use adult stem cells (and here's where they really let their motivations behind their stance out)...why destroy a human life when we don't have to.
The answer is that they aren't even the same thing...but a lot of people won't even listen to that...they're both stem cells...what difference could there be? Yeah, all blood cells are the same too.
2.) All the major medical advancements linked to stem cells have been done using adult stem cells. Embryonic is simply theoretical. Why destroy a human life when when the adult stem cells are better suited to medical use?
Again, there is a pretty simple answer to that. The use of adult stem cells has never really been under controversy and the majority of advancements made are really very minor. Extracting the cells from marrow before chemo treatments and then reinjecting them to help the patient recover. Usually when you hear of the potential of stem cell treatments they aren't talking about adult stem cells at all, and when they specifically mention adult stem cells and how they have the potential to be just as versatile as embryonic stem cells, well...that's even more theoretical then embryonic stem cells being usefull..a lot more. Really, do you expect huge advancements when you're talking about the medical aplication of a substance that is as restricted as embryonic stem cells? So many countries have so many different laws and people are scared to fund it since it could be shut down a year from now. It's a bit like claiming the manned mission to Jupiter was a failure. Oh, yeah we haven't really tried...but why bother when we can get to the moon. And lets not forget that penicillin didn't cure anything until all of a sudden it was purified and cured pretty much everything.
Chances are embryonic stem cell research is over hyped...it's not a miracle cure, but that doesn't change the fact that any statistical or scientific argument against it is pretty much flawed right off the bat. There isn't a scientific argument about it at all....there's a theory lets try to prove or disprove it - it's all purely ethical. Now there's nothing at all wrong with that really, but don't fucking try to hide behind the fact that it 'probably won't ammount to much', just say what you mean...you don't want people using fertilized human eggs for experiments.
And don't even get me started on how it may lead to full on human reproductive cloning. Probably the best example of a classical logical fallacy if I've ever run across one.
