Before issues of morality, ethics and party status get involved, let’s just lay down an important fact: Stem-cell research is not federally funded because of the voiced will of the people. Government officials are voted into office based on how they feel about issues like this.
Aside from party lines and religious views, people tend to get scared away from looking too deeply into the issue itself. It’s full of technical terms, abstract concepts and theories difficult for the average student to wrap his or her mind around while reading the morning paper. The arguments for and against are equally daunting. “It could save millions of lives” clashes with “It’s against nature,” and who wants to jump headfirst into that battle?
Yet, as much attention as we devote to the current “hot topics” in news, such as wire-tapping, hunting safety and inflammatory cartoons, what will affect us more in the long run than the possibility of human clones?
More importantly, the final decision in the matter is not as far off as most people would like to think. This is a long-term project, but the decision of whether America is for or against stem-cell research and cloning will have to be decided before the next election — before November!
America prides itself in its scientists — will they, should they be put to work on federally funded stem-cell research or the even more controversial research of cloning? It’s not hard to imagine — after all, other countries already do. This is a technology with great potential for health and harm, and countries around the world are on the brink of crossing over into the science of cloning humans. How far away is the time when we don’t have to worry about the arms race — when instead it’s an armies race? China, Korea and India already have the technology for gender selection, the process of deciding an unborn child’s gender. They could be arranging their population’s gender balance for the best odds of reproduction, and how far away is that from cloning entire children?
Clearly, we don’t advocate an all-out international race to see who can clone an army first — but we should certainly understand the issue. If we decide the government should fund stem-cell research and possibly carry out cloning experiments, then it should obviously be for knowledge, not for weapons. We don’t want a clone army, but we need to understand the technology in case another nation does.
Most importantly, we need to understand the entire issue and where we stand before the next election. A change in office will mean a change in policy, and something with such far-reaching consequences needs to continue to reflect the will of the people.
