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The discussion is essentially one on when or where life begins. Unfortunately because of complicated ethical and practical issues the question cannot be answered. There is a continuum of of opinions ranging from a cell is a person, to life begins at birth. Therefore arguing on the use of stem cell or funding of research comes down to making a decision based on a well defined set of parameters, largely ignoring the ethical issues. This means that there will be people who think it is too early, it is too late, it is right. This uncertainty reflects the ambiguity of making a decision and is related to similar situations where a set of agreed upon rules is used to act on. Think of the rules surrounding capital punishment. A decision is reached essentially without worrying about the moral ambiguity, because it fits into the legal framework, hence rules. Thus a comparable set of rules must be developed for stem cell research. Historically there is nothing unusual about this. New technologies become available and rules must be developed to phase them into society. Think of the development of nuclear power and arms (where it actually looks like the rules are breaking down). Does this apply to cloning. Yes. It is almost universally agreed that cloning is not allowable because of the ethical ambiguity. But even there geographic differences exist. K. F. cg Carline ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn