I Think I Must Be Missing Something Here.

Is there something I don't understand about this whole stem cell thing? Is this somehow not a no-brainer?

I'll take one second here to just say I LOVE when Congress squabbles...the Senate comes up with this whole smooth plan on how to give George W. Bush some political cover, and then the House is all Rowdy Little Brother about it and doesn't really follow the plan. Awesome. GO CONGRESS!

Okay, so the stem cell thing. I THINK I kind of agree with the whole no fetal farming thing. If nothing else it seems creepy - creating mini humans with the express intent to destroy them? Yeesh. If that was the only way scientists were proposing to get stem cells, then yeah, I'd want them to come up with another way. But the unused in vitro fetuses...that's where I'm missing something. Conservatives don't rail against in vitro fertilization in any meaningful and/or loud way on a regular basis, but the fetuses that aren't implanted and carried to term just get thrown away for the most part.

So...on the grand scales of morality and common sense, isn't it better to use the unused fetuses to help develop cures for people with debilitating diseases than to throw them away? Isn't curing diabetes a more noble end for these fetuses than a biohazard dumpster? I feel slightly insane over here, because people are in such a LATHER over this and it seems so simple to me - fetuses get "made," one fetus gets implanted and carried to term, other fetuses who would otherwise be thrown out are used for stem cell research. Either way, those fetuses are not going to see childhood or adulthood. Period the end. So why the outcry over their being used for something useful rather than just being thrown away?

I understand that this is a lot like organ donation...I think everyone's heard or had concern over whether or not emergency personnel or hospital doctors will work as hard to save your life if someone in Omaha REALLY needs a heart and shares your blood type. You kind of have to trust that they will, and that there are rules in place governing it, and that if in fact, they do lose you, your organs will be doing great things for someone else. An organ donor can save - SAVE - up to SEVEN lives. How many lives would one fetus save?

This is just mystifying to me. The benefit seems so enormous, all around.

Maybe I'm missing something.