STEM-CELL RESEARCH: Use of human embryos defies justification by any moral measure

No cause justifies the taking of innocent human life.

Recently, there has been much strong discussion about the morality of embryonic stem-cell research. Frequently, the position of the Roman Catholic Church in the matter is the subject of criticism.

A Post-Dispatch editorial stated that the cloned human blastocysts used in embryonic stem-cell research could not develop into a human being. In fact, the position of the church is that the cloned human blastocysts already are human beings, at least from the moment they are induced to begin cellular division like other embryos.

The editorial suggests that there should be no moral obstacle to laboratory production and destruction of these cloned human embryos. U.N. Ambassador John Danforth made a similar assertion in a Post-Dispatch guest commentary, referring to these embryonic humans as "tiny bundles of unfertilized cells existing in petri dishes." These sorts of comments demonstrate that those who support this type of research do not treat a cloned human embryo as a human organism because it is not the result of fertilization.

Danforth and, in a letter to the editor, state Sen. Anita Yeckel, R-Sunset Hills, assert that the answer to the concern about cloning is to outlaw transplanation of the embryos into the uterus. This view actually contradicts the claim that these embryos are not human beings. If we were not speaking of a living human organism, transplantation into the uterus would be of no consequence.

The intention to destroy the embryos after they are cloned is another factor that a number of legislators have cited as justification for the production of cloned human embryos for research purposes. It is the position of the church, however, that the deliberate destruction of human embryos, whether they are produced through fertilization or cloning, violates the human being's fundamental right to life. In fact, the addition of the intention to kill the tiny human embryo makes the moral problem worse, not better, than cloning for reproductive purposes.

Phrases like "somatic cell nuclear transfer," "therapeutic cloning" and "cell regeneration," which Danforth used in his commentary, may make the subject seem less objectionable, but cloning in order to produce human embryos for the harvesting of stem cells is still human cloning. The proposed research techniques have been developed with the intention of destroying embryonic humans in order to harvest embryonic stem cells for use in treating disease. However, experiments with these cells have produced, so far anyway, no successful treatments.

The Roman Catholic Church supports medical research and the development of new cures involving so-called adult stem cells, which are gathered in a morally correct manner. This includes those saved from the placenta and umbilical-cord blood, as well as those harvested in other ways which do not involve the destruction of a human life.

No motive, no matter how exalted - even the certain hope for a cure of another individual or groups of individuals - can justify the taking of innocent human life. The church's moral condemnation of embryonic human stem-cell research is based principally upon the fact that an embryonic human must be destroyed in order to conduct the research.

The Most Rev. Raymond L. Burke is archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis.