By now everyone can recite from memory the typical objection to stem-cell research. It goes something like this: 'I don't approve of stem-cell research because it robs an embryo (which is just a small human being) of his/her/its right to life. I hold life sacred and cannot allow the killing of what is sacred.' It is an obvious argument that has worked for pro-life organizations fighting abortion. Why shouldn't it continue to work in the fight against stem-cell research?
It is not that it won't continue to work, but that stem-cell research, and especially human cloning, do a lot more than violate the sanctity of life. It should strike fear into the hearts of every individual that science can now accomplish what political science has striven to create for the past 200 years. By simply splicing, rearranging and duplicating the genetic code of an individual, science can fulfill what has been the dream of this country since its infancy, that 'all men are created equal.'
Stem cells are the first step in a process that will blur the lines of individual identity and question the very reality of the world we live in. Where once creator could be used with a capital C, there is now the potential for a multiplicity of creators, each forming out of the vast nothingness of the human genetic code his, her or its own conception of reality.
Will stem-cell research lead to miracle cures for all the debilitating illnesses that plague the world? Has anything ever produced a miracle cure for anything in the entire history of human existence? Stem-cell research can be beneficial, just as a gun can be beneficial. But to assume human nature will automatically reject the bad and only embrace the good of what stem-cell research has to offer is an overly optimistic assessment of human history.
Now that UW-Madison has the copyrighted key to the future of stem-cell research, the ethics of allowing certain types of research fall heavily upon the shoulders of UW-Madison administrators, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation officials, the university's faculty and, to a lesser degree, students. It is imperative that WARF leases stem-cell technology to researchers with the ethical background to handle the enormous responsibility of creating new life. The consequences of carelessness will not just be the violation of the sanctity of human life, but also the eventual unraveling of the relationship between parent, child; creator, created; reality, illusion.
