Letter: Researchers can’t kill what isn’t alive

Tuesday, July 25, 2006 | 7:45 a.m.

I am responding to F. Jay Harrell's July 23 letter that the Sun headlined, "President has stayed true to his word." It is true that the president has remained true to his campaign promise of "no federal funding for stem-cell research." (I think that's the only campaign promise that he's kept.)

Embryos are not living humans until they attach themselves to the womb. Otherwise, shouldn't they all be implanted upon fertilization? Is it moral to create more than is needed? Will they live and grow into a human being in the lab dish? Therefore, one cannot kill a baby until the embryo has attached itself to the womb. The womb does not allow every fertilized embryo to attach itself, and that is why doctors use so many embryos in artificial insemination impregnation (which results in so many multiple births).

Maybe the creation of embryos should be outlawed, thus destroying the hopes of many infertile couples in this world. Maybe they shouldn't be allowed to marry.

It seems to me that the Bible spoke of sex being for procreation only. After all, knowingly infertile couples cannot procreate and they are "wasting" their "seed" and are being immoral since they are performing sex for "recreation."

Condemning one to death because of refusing to fund scientific research is a form of execution when we have the resources to create medical cures for those who have "contracted" medical death sentences. The goal of mankind is to make for the betterment of all mankind and not its destruction.

Daniel E. Chase, North Las Vegas