Ayn Rand Institute fellow on "rights"

[rayilynlee <rayilynlee@xxxxxxx>]

The Anti-Life Opposition to Embryonic Stem Cell Research 
By Ayn Rand Institute (12/30/05) 

In the name of the sanctity of human life and the inviolability of rights, 
embryonic stem cell research must be allowed to proceed unimpeded. 

It is widely known that embryonic stem cell research has the potential to 
revolutionize medicine and save millions of lives. Yet many people, including 
the Pope in his recent public address, oppose embryonic stem cell research--and 
do so under the banner of being "pro-life."

The opponents of embryonic stem cell research claim that their position is 
rooted in "respect for human life." They say that the embryos destroyed in the 
process of extracting stem cells are human beings with a right to life. In Pope 
Benedict's recent words: "The loving eyes of God look on the human being, 
considered full and complete at its beginning."

But embryos used in embryonic stem cell research are manifestly not human 
beings--not in any rational sense of the term. These embryos are smaller than a 
grain of sand, and consist of at most a few hundred undifferentiated cells. 
They have no body or body parts. They do not see, hear, feel, or think. While 
they have the potential to become human beings--if implanted in a woman's 
uterus and brought to term--they are nowhere near actual human beings.

What, then, is the "pro-lifers"' reason for regarding these collections of 
cells as sacred and attributing rights to them? Religious dogma.

The "pro-lifers" accept on faith the belief that rights are a divine creation: 
a gift from an unknowable supernatural being bestowed on embryos at conception 
(which many extend to embryos "conceived" in a beaker). The most prominent 
example of this view is the official doctrine of the Catholic Church, which 
declares to its followers that an embryo "is to be respected and treated as a 
person from the moment of conception; and therefore from that same moment his 
rights as a person must be recognized."

But rights are not some supernatural construct, mystically granted by the will 
of "God." They are this-worldly principles of proper political interaction 
rooted in man's rational nature. Rights recognize the fact that men can only 
live successfully and happily among one another if they are free from the 
initiation of force against them. Rights exist to protect and further human 
life. Rights enable individual men to think, act, produce and trade, live and 
love in freedom. The principle of rights is utterly inapplicable to tiny, 
pre-human clusters of cells that are incapable of such actions.

In fact, to attribute rights to embryos is to call for the violation of actual 
rights. Since the purpose of rights is to enable individuals to secure their 
well-being, a crucial right, inherent in the right to liberty and property, is 
the right to do scientific research in pursuit of new medical treatments. To 
deprive scientists of the freedom to use clusters of cells to do such research 
is to violate their rights--as well as the rights of all who would contribute 
to, invest in, or benefit from this research.

And to the extent that rights are violated in this way, we can expect deadly 
results. The political pressure against embryonic stem cell research is already 
discouraging many scientists and businessmen from investing their time and 
resources in its pursuit. If this research can lead, as scientists believe, to 
the ability to create new tissues and organs to replace damaged ones, any 
obstacles placed in its path will unnecessarily delay the discovery of new 
cures and treatments for diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, 
osteoporosis, and diabetes. Every day that this potentially life-saving 
research is delayed is another day that will go by before new treatments become 
available to ease the suffering and save the lives of countless individuals. 
And if the "pro-lifers" ever achieve the ban they seek on embryonic stem cell 
research, millions upon millions of human beings, living or yet to be born, 
might be deprived of healthier, happier, and longer lives.

The enemies of embryonic stem cell research know this, but are unmoved. They 
are brazenly willing to force countless human beings to suffer and die for lack 
of treatments, so that clusters of cells remain untouched.

To call such a stance "pro-life" is beyond absurd. Their allegiance is not to 
human life or to human rights, but to their anti-life dogma.

If these enemies of human life wish to deprive themselves of the benefits of 
stem cell research, they should be free to do so and die faithful to the last. 
But any attempt to impose their religious dogma on the rest of the population 
is both evil and unconstitutional. In the name of the actual sanctity of human 
life and the inviolability of rights, embryonic stem cell research must be 
allowed to proceed unimpeded. Our lives may depend on it.

David Holcberg is a media research specialist and Alex Epstein is a junior 
fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. 




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