Hmmm...

Okay, I am not sure where exactly I stand on embryotic stem cell research - on one hand I think they may have stumbled onto something that could dramatically change lives for the better. On the other, it just seems 'wrong' to me to use embryos. That is based on my own personal beliefs that life begins largely at conception. I realize that. I also realize that if one of my children had an accident and was paralyzed, but stem cell research may help them, I would want to look into it deeply. It's a moral conundrum. However, what I have a bit of trouble sorting through is today's news where the US President reversed Bush's ExOrder on allowing federal funding into a broader range of stem cell research - because he said that ideology and personal beliefs have no place in science.

But at the same time, he said that he would not allow Human Cloning because it is """dangerous, profoundly wrong" and has no place in society."". So, is that an ideology, personal belief? Or is it science? I just want to know what the apparent difference is between saying Yes to embryotic stem cell research, No to ideology/science mixing, and then No to human cloning.

Again, I personally sit on the fence with this issue. I think it should be regulated to only use embryos that were previously destined for other use (ie Invitro fertilization) but were then not going to be used and would have been destroyed. I think if those embryos could be put to a higher purpose instead of the trash bin, then that's a good thing. But if it goes beyond that where women are getting pregnant in order to sell their embryos, like women who sell their eggs, it should be reigned in tightly. I don't know what all the details are, that is just my personal thought for this topic. I just want to know how a person can say in one sentence that ideology should not get in the way of science, and in the next sentence say that it's 'wrong' to clone humans. Is that a purely scientific belief, or is it ideological?

There are also a lot of sites out there that talk about problems with this kind of research, so..... it's a bit difficult sometimes to come up with an informed opinion.