Building Straw Men: Pro-Life vs Pro-Choice

The author of Accidental Russofile commenting on my blog has accused me of building a straw man. I can argue my position by pointing out that “pro-choice” stance is more about keeping abortion legal than offering a real choice. Many men and women are so misinformed about abortion and possible devastating aftermath that their decision to abort can be called anything but a free choice. But that misinformation is not limited to the abortion. It appears that such misinformation carries into many other areas as well. Stem cell research is one such area.

Just take a look at the following announcement of Massachusetts Biotechnology Council:

Some consider stem cell research the Holy Grail of regenerative medicine. Others view the idea as morally wrong. But what would you do if your child became paralyzed from the waist down and you had access to the research that might allow them to walk again one day? These questions our society continues to grapple with. Follow a respected neurologist into the unknown territory of stem cell research.

Talk about the straw man! I am wondering why the word embryonic is omitted? The above paragraph is presenting a lie from the very start. We, in pro-life movement, are not against the stem cell research. In fact we welcome and support the research in the area as along as the cells are not taken from embryos- effectively destroying embryos in the process. We indeed encourage such a research. The other lie in that short paragraph is hidden behind suffering of an innocent people who may be suffering from presently incurable diseases. As if by opposing destroying embryos we indeed depriving these poor people from hope that one day a cure will be found. The fallacy here lies in the fact that so far no evidence has been presented that cells derived from the embryos have actually contribute to curing a disease. In fact there are better hopes that adult stem cell research can be more beneficial. One of the “fathers” of Dolly the Sheep has abandoned the experimenting with human embryos:

Prof Wilmut announced that he was abandoning the cloning of human embryos in stem cell research in favour of a new technique developed in Japan

Wilmut’s announcement come as a definite blow to those who favor embryonic stem cell research. Hopefully the American “scientists” begin to catch up as well and turning their efforts and research into the area free of moral and ethical problems. Otherwise they have no choice but to stick to their “straw men”.