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BBC News

This has been in the news for the last couple of days...so you may have heard about it.

Basicly...they have discovered that some embryonic cells show signs of developing into germ cells, the sort of parents of sperm and egg cells. What they believe they will be able to do later ((though this isn't mentioned as such in this article, I actually listened to them debating it on the news)) is clone the couple wishing to have a baby, then when the cloned embryos have developed sufficiently to take the stem cells and give them the right conditions to produce an egg or a sperm. Then to create an embryo from this, or perhaps a few, just in case that one does not work.

What some Lifer charities are saying is that this is less about infertile couples and more about stem cell researchers not having to rely on sperm and egg donors.

There are so many issues wrapped up in this...I'll just a pick a few out fo the air...

1) Is it ethical to be spending so much time and money in creating new people when there are children out there waiting for loving parents?

2) Is it ethical to create two new lives simply to destroy them to make another one? ((It'll be interesting to hear both Lifers and Choicers on this one))

3) Is IVF itself even ethical considering they purposely create more embryos "just in case"?

4) Does "Destructive research on human embryos erode respect for the value of human life...?" ((Spokesman Matthew O'Gorman for the charity Life))

1. Hell no! We should be finding homes for the children that already exist, not wasting time and resources making new ones. If they want children so bad, they can adopt.

2. See above.

3. If the embryos were being put to better use than either becoming a potential child or potential trash can fodder, I would say yes. As previously stated, they can always adopt if they want children.

4. I would say "No" if they were coming up with remedies for important situations since the embryos would be contributing to something great. However, since they're only being wasted, I would have to say they are being degraded.