I told you so, Loren

I used to work with a fellow by the name of Loren. Loren was a good guy. He was good natured, had a wonderful sense of humor, and was good at his job. I even convinced him to play some D&D with Cliff, Doc, Nitz, and myself for a little while. He was even a relatively staunch conservative. Loren had one problem, though.

You see, Loren fell for the lie that was being perpetuated at the time that only stem cells from embryos could produce medical advancements that might cure Chris Reeve. I tried to tell him that only a small number of stem cells needed to be embryonic, and that regular stem cells made the research harder, but not impossible. Using stem cells from discarded embryos, at least using federal money to do it, was a violation of the religious rights of Catholics and other pro-life advocates. If I believe an embryo is life or potential life, then using my tax money to destroy that life is a severe violation of my conscience. Loren said that the research was too important. I, of course, countered that NO research is more important than any one of our freedoms. (As a point of disclaimer, I am not Catholic and I'm rather agnostic on the question of whether a frozen embryo is a person).

At any rate, the science has caught up with the ethics on this one, finally. As it turns out, you CAN do research on stem cells without destroying embryos.

So, Loren, wherever you are, I'd just like to say: thhhhppppppptt!!!!!