Stem Cell Research

I thank "the view from her" for pointing out some interesting research on a stem cell therapy that might be as good as embryonic stem cells, and yet not involve a "disposable human" grown only for spare parts: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4841786.stm

I read an editorial recently about how certain people, us silly Christians of course, are holding up important research just because we're paranoid about the "word" cloning. It's not the word. We're not stupid, and we're not scared of the new and the different as such. We have a different worldview. We believe in a soul that will live forever. We have no idea, at least as far as I know when that soul enters the body. Is it at birth? Is it at conception? Is it when the child becomes aware of itself as a separate being apart from its mother? Keep in mind that I'm not really talking about a personality. I'm talking about an eternal soul that will someday either wind up in heaven or hell. What is a soul? Where is it? Is there such a thing? You can't measure it scientifically. It is not provable. Therefore, all the nonsense from the pro-lifers about when life begins is rubbish. Life doesn't begin, at least not since a little before Adam. There was never any point in the womb when there isn't life. The womb is so absolutely bursting with life, it almost can't be contained. There is no beginning of life there, simply a passing of the baton through the umbilical cord to the next generation. When does that new life become sentient life? Who knows? What does that word mean, anyway? We don't really become sentient until we are finally born in heaven. Only then, do we really get the picture as to what it's all been about. Until then, we see dimly, through the haze of prior experiences that we're still trying to process. We are like a ball of tangled yarn.

I get lost in the maze of my own words and forget what I'm talking about. Oh, yeah, stem cells. I guess I can maybe understand why the scientific community is a little confused by the disconnect between our rhetoric and where we choose to place our outrage. If life begins at conception, aren't these embryonic stem cells already life that is being thrown away currently. We don't seem to have a problem with that, or at least I don't hear anybody protesting it. Am I wrong here? I don't really understand the science too well. Isn't a frozen embryo an egg and a sperm that have already been put together successfully? So, according to pro-lifers, it's a frozen baby. Why isn't that a big deal?

What I was going to say was, when a stem cell is grown or harvested or whatever, does the new life that was created when egg and sperm met and created this little sperm cell already have a soul? And how do we ensure that these little beings have at least an opportunity to choose heaven over hell? Little sperm cell missionaries? Chuckle.