Why note age of embryonic stem cells?
Two of many good points Sarah Flashing, at the blog Flashpoint, made in her critique of a C-Span-covered interview of Gail Pressburg, co-author of The Promise & Politics of Stem Cell Research, were these:
“Five-day old cells.” Gail, are you afraid to use the word embryo? After all, the name of the research establishes that it is embryos from which the stem cells are being harvested. Let’s not be coy.
As well, since when do we allow an age category to be applied to what are just clumps of cells?
This effort to disguise the personhood of the embryo by referring to it as just cells is disingenuous.
And combining this cellular way of talking about the embryo and the fact of age with the admission “well they’ll just be thrown away anyway” is nothing less than conceding to the fact that these are human beings at the beginning stages of life.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
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