Stem cell debate will continue

The new technique that may produce stem cells by removing one cell from a blastomere and placing the remaining cells into a uterus to grow into a fetus is interesting, but not the end of the debate on stem cell research. And unfortunately for Rep. Mark Green, the religious right isn't going to allow him to support this alternative.

The Catholics have already trashed the method as being against their principles and too risky to the embryo. A panel appointed by President Bush also found the procedure "ethically troubling" a while back.

The purists on this issue will never accept any research method that involves an embryo.

The cell is extracted from an two-day-old embryo and the religious right believes that an two-day-old embryo is an two-day-old human being with all the rights and protections of an two-year-old human being. In the mind of a purist, removing a cell for research at this stage would be the equivalent of doing an experiment on someone without asking.

And of course, the purists also believes that the cell that is removed from the blastomere to create the stem cell line has the potential to become a human being as well.

If this new procedure works, great. But it doesn't mean that the current methods to obtain stem cells should be abandoned. If the research community has six different types of research going into curing lung cancer, they wouldn't abandon the other five just because one looks promising. What if one of the other five actually has the cure within it?