Stem Cell research

10/9/04

Heather IM'd me to scold me for not updating my blog, so here goes. Not much has been happening lately. Writing isn't flowing as well as it used to, but it's still plugging along steadily. I'm gaining more insight into my characters, which is exciting.

Research for the series has been interesting. The crime is based on a private embryonic stem cell company which is also doing illegal reproductive cloning and fetal organ harvesting. The websites supporting embryonic stem cell work are both interesting and sometimes disturbing. One website kept describing therapeutically cloned embryos as "eggs." "Eggs are not babies, eggs are not fertilized," etc. But therapeutic cloning, while it doesn't use a sperm cell, produces a cell that is no longer an EGG. An egg only has half the required genetic material. A therapeutically cloned cell has a full complement of DNA and starts mitotic splitting like an embryo. Calling it an EGG is downright deceptive and a state of denial.

I guess the whole lack of respect for the sanctity of life disturbs me. People have no qualms about cloning an embryo to slaughter it for its cells, but back off when someone wants to implant said embryo in a woman's womb. I think both are wrong, but the sins are slightly different--the process of cloning violates God's right to create, but the former also violates a person's right to life. And I think the fact that cloning success rates are dismal is God's way of pointing out that His alone is the power to bring forth life.

Okay, off the soapbox.

I have to work on Sunday. Boohoo. I hope it doesn't take too long, but I have a sinking feeling it's going to be almost a full day's worth. Gotta get some writing done today, since I won't get much done tomorrow.