Embryo: A Defense of Human Life

About this book

The bitter national debates over abortion euthanasia and stem cell research have created an unbridgeable gap between religious groups and those who insist that faith-based views have no place in public policy. Religious conservatives are so adamantly opposed to stem cell research in particular that President Bush issued the first veto of his presidency over a bill that would have provided federal funding for such research. Now in this timely consideration of the nature and rights of human embryos Robert P. George and Christopher Tollefsen make a persuasive case that we as a society should neither condone nor publicly fund embryonic stem cell research of any kind. Typically right-to-life arguments have been based explicitly on moral and religious grounds. In Embryo the authors eschew religious arguments and make a purely scientific and philosophical case that the fetus from the instant of conception is a human being with all the moral and political rights inherent in that status. As such stem cell research that destroys a viable embryo represents the unacceptable taking of a human life. There is also no room in their view for a moral dualism that regards being a person as merely a stage in a human life span. An embryo does not exist in a prepersonal stage that does not merit the inviolable rights otherwise ascribed to persons. Instead the authors argue the right not to be intentionally killed is inherent in the fact of being a human being and that status begins at the moment of conception. Moreover just as none should be excluded from moral and legal protections based on race sex religion or ethnicity none should be excluded on the basis of age size or stage of biological development. George and Tollefsen fearlessly grapple with the political scientific and cultural consequences arising from their position and offer a summary of scientific alternatives to embryonic stem cell research. They conclude that the state has an ethical and moral obligation to protect embryonic human beings in just the same manner that it protects every other human being and they advocate for embryo adoptionthe only ethical solution to the problem of spare embryos resulting from in-vitro fertilization.