Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Stem cell research- The Debate

Well this is the final blog I'm going to make on stem cell research (unless something new comes up about it.) Last Sunday we finished off our study about this research with a debate. The statement we debated on was "Stem cell research is morally wrong and Christians should unite together to stop this research." Instead of getting to pick which side we were on in the debate we were assigned randomly to the two different sides. (Oh joy.) There was an Affirmative group which was going to back up the said statement above, and the Negative group which was going to rebutt the said statment above. I ended up on the Negative side which I was a little nervous about. After all my thinking had started swaying toward the anti- stem cell research side of things and it would be hard to argue against the statement above. Still out teacher said that it was important to be able to argue for both sides so we could have better insight into the whole situation. I guess he was right. (Or was he?? :)

Here are some of the main things discussed in the debate: First of all the affirmative team stated that stem cell research is murder pure and simple. Our team introduced en vitro fertilization into the argument. En vitro fertilization is where embryos are still used to replace cells, but they are "test tube babies" in a way and since they're going to be tossed out anyway, we reasoned, why not use them for stem cell research? We discussed what it would be like if one of your grandparents, parents, siblings, friends, etc. had a terrible disease that could not be cured unless stem cells were used. Would you be willing to see your loved one die simply because you believed stem cell research was wrong? These are tough questions to answer and there's really no right or wrong answer here. My opinion on all of this? I found myself swaying a bit towards the anti-stem cell research side. I am totally against abortion, and this is taking lives just like abortion is. On the other hand, however, think about all the lives that could be saved through this. I'll probably be thinking on this one for a while. Meanwhile I hope you've enjoyed these last few posts on this subject. I know I've learned something through all this and I hope you have too. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

1 comment:

Sarah said...

I had a nice, long comment written... and something messed up. *shakes computer* LOL!!! I'll try to remember some of what I said.

First of all, I think it was great that you were still able to debate, even on the side you were less positive towards. I am a horrible debator, and could not have done that.

I am still like you... mostly leaning towards how it is wrong... but there's always that "not sure-ness" there. Technology is an amazing thing. We are curing cancer. But there are times when things are out of our hands. Even though man is powerful, God is ALL powerful. Even though it may hurt, and be very sad, our loved ones are eventually going to be called home. Even though we wish we could do anything to save them, sometimes you can't just do whatever you feel like doing. Sometimes as humans we want more and more and more, sometimes to the point when we are taking something from someone else to give it to another person.

We just have to keep praying about this, and trust God that His will will be done.

I think this covers most of it. Lol! THANKS so much for typing all your posts in about the Stem Cell research. You can put on your resume (sp?) that you were a teacher. =]

Love ya!