I'm probably the last person in the world to see this question posed. I'm always behind the curve. Anyway, in case I'm not, here it is:

On the pro side they had Alta Charo, professor of bioethics at the University of Wisconsin, and on the con side they trotted out Some Dude whose name I can't remember, [...] whose contention is that life begins at the moment of conception when sperm meets egg and having been thus blessed by the Divine Hand of the Creator it is henceforth entitled to the same protections as an adult human. [...] The ultimate conclusion is that Embryonic Stem Cell Research Is Wrong.


So Alta brings up the conundrum that's always guaranteed to set wingnut heads a-spinning and green pea soup spewing from their mouths, which is basically a riff on "if a fire breaks out in a fertility clinic, who do you save -- a Petri dish with five blastula or the two year-old child?"

The rest of the article (via Atrios) is about the disconnect between the stances of Right to Lifers on abortion and in vitro fertilizaiton, which apparently produces a number of unused embryos:

[Fifteen percent] of all mothers in this country get a little help on the fertility front from science, and since that probably includes no small number of Iowa fundies looking to increase the flock of the faithful, she stops short of casting Joe and Sally Christian who just want to breed, breed breed into the fiery ovens of eternal damnation if they happen to brew up a few extra embryos they never intend to use along the way.

That sure is some sentence, isn't it? Someone should donate a full stop to this person. Nonetheless, it's a good read.


Update: Also, South Dakota blows. Not that anyone needed more reasons not to move to Nowhere, but there it is.

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