Discovery Institute’s Wesley Smith, writing in the May 20, 2013 issue of The Weekly Standard draws our attention to an April 10th article in the New England Journal of Medicine. The article disturbingly calls for the creation of a commodities market for human embryos!
Unfortunately, unborn babies have already been authorized to be bought and sold for in vitro fertilization. Also, years ago, the state of New York authorized the selling of eggs for use in biotechnology research. While an egg is not fertilized, an embryo clearly is a human, with its own distinct DNA.
The field of genetic research is a burgeoning field with loads of potential for breakthrough discoveries. With a government willing to fund more and more research but at the same time less and less likely to feel hemmed-in by morals, there is no end to what a human embryo market will lead.
Biotechnology firms could conceivably special order an embryo with certain genetic traits – much like they already do with mice. Some genetic factors (like gender) are quite easy; others would be a hit-or-miss approach. So, what would a commodities market do? Begin cloning those traits that were the most in demand, tailor-made for certain types of research.
The California assembly recently voted to allow women to be paid to supply eggs to be used in research. Women are given hormones to increase their production of eggs from 1-2 in a natural cycle to 20-30. The eggs are then extracted through a needle. Scientists need this supply of eggs in their attempts at cloning.
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I don’t know where the current administration stands on the issue but with their rhetoric on women, I can see them supporting these measures. However, who do you think would be the first to line up to donate embryos and eggs? Poorer women. The side effects of this hormone treatment? Infection, swelling of the ovaries, infertility, stroke, cancer, and even death.
Aside from the ethics of selling body parts for experiments is the problem of using human embryos for the same thing. Once embryos have a market, it won’t be long for there to be a market for fetuses.
As a recent radio talk show host out of Louisville recently observed, “If life does not begin at conception, any other point in time is simply at the discretion of an individual’s whim.” That’s about as simple as you can put it.
What will we do about it?
Paul Holland
