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...and, Joao Paulo, with these infertility treatments, it is LEGAL to create life in vitro where life would not have existed before, LEGAL to sustain life for only one of some number of embryos which might be produced, LEGAL to discard the remaining embryos. These infertility treatments are a LIFE-GIVING medical advance. Why stop there? The embryos which would otherwise be discarded can be life giving too - not just to one person but potentially to many. If infertility treatments that can produce an excess of live embryos can be legal and morally justified - (and most people would agree that they can) - then a fortiori the use of these excess embryos to save lives should be not only legal but morally mandated. Art At 02:35 PM 9/15/99 , Joao Paulo Carvalho wrote: >The decision of some ethicists will have a great impact in how to find a >cure for PD and many other terrible diseases . >It is hard to me to understand the logic of some human fellows : > >1 . It is LEGAL to kill and be killed during wars ( men and women ) . If >one can think of how many billions and billions of potential embryos are >destroyed with these deaths ? >But killing , or even using few embryos for research and cure is NOT >LEGAL .... > >2. It is LEGAL for couples to plan how many children they want to have . >For that they may utilize any of the many anticonceptive methods . And >what these methods are ? In some way they avoid the junction of the male >and the female cells to form the embryos . In other words they let these >cells to die , or be killed It is LEGAL . >But using the junction of these cells , the embryos , well it is NOT >LEGAL . > >Maybe I am looking the problem as a martian ..... :-) > >Cheers , > >Joao > > >judith richards wrote: > >> Panel Urges Embryo Donation Policy >> >> WASHINGTON (AP) _ Women with embryos left over from infertility >> treatments should be allowed to donate them to taxpayer-funded >> medical research _ meaning a federal law that prohibits such >> research should be changed, President Clinton's top ethics advisers >> said Monday. >> The National Bioethics Advisory Commission's report comes even >> though the White House previously indicated it disagrees with that >> recommendation. >> At issue are embryonic stem cells, unique ``master cells'' that >> in early embryos generate all the other tissues of the body. Stem >> cells are causing huge scientific excitement, because researchers >> hope the cells one day could regenerate body parts or create new >> therapies for Alzheimer's and other devastating diseases. >> But their use has raised troubling ethical questions, because >> culling stem cells destroys the embryo. Federal law prohibits >> taxpayer-funded human embryo research, and about 75 members of >> Congress have opposed a move to get around that prohibition to >> enable the National Institutes of Health to study the cells' >> medical potential. >> So Clinton ordered his ethics advisers to study how the nation >> should proceed. >> Citing the cells' great promise, the panel said embryos left >> over from infertility treatment _ which otherwise would be thrown >> away _ should be allowed to be donated to taxpayer-funded >> scientists. >> Privately funded researchers last year culled stem cells from >> donated embryos, and multiplied the cells in a laboratory. Despite >> the federal law, the NIH contends it would be legal for its >> researchers to use those lab-grown supplies because government >> scientists never touched the original embryos. >> But the ethics panel said that relying on those supplies ``could >> severely limit scientific and clinical progress'' because more >> embryos may be needed. The federal ban should be changed because it >> ``conflicts with several of the ethical goals of medicine ... >> especially healing.'' >> Embryos could not be sold, and couples could not be pressured to >> donate, the panel stressed. >> Clinton issued a statement thanking the ethicists for ``a >> thoughtful report.'' But the White House in July said it didn't >> plan to try to get the law changed, instead backing the NIH >> proposal. > > +----| Joao Paulo de Carvalho |------ + > | [log in to unmask] | > +--------| Salvador-Bahia-Brazil |------+