What is a stem cell?

Stem cells for research are not byproducts of abortion. They are taken from a blastula stage of a fertilized egg left over from fertility treatments, which would otherwise be thrown away. At that stage it has about 120 cells and is microscopic. They will never develop into an embryo. They go on reproducing as a mass of undifferentiated cells until they are put in touch with specialized tissue.

Tags: abortion, stem cells

Letter about stem cell research

Click on the link to read Mike's whole "Letter to a Conservative About Stem Cells":

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Any ideology, philosophy, or theology that would willingly consign millions to needless suffering and death because of an obsession with blastulas is unjust. We should tolerate those with different beliefs, and I try to do so. Yet our tolerance must stop when the lives of our fellow citizens would suffer, or even end prematurely as a result of these beliefs. The notion that we would do nothing to alleviate the anguish of millions of people due to obtuse theological 'reasoning' is horrifying....

This sounds like the grounds for objecting to abortion, doesn't it?

Tags: diabetes, stem cells