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'Destroyed anyway' no argument for Prop. 2
by Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published October 31, 2008
 Detroit — The argument that thousands of frozen embryos are destined to be destroyed anyway may often be cited in support of Proposal 2, but it doesn't cut any ice with Janet Smith, Ph.D., noted pro-life author and seminary professor.
"An analogy I like to use is: 'If your 2-year-old were going to die, would you say it was all right to do experiments on him, or remove his heart or lung while he was still living?'" says Smith, who holds the Fr. Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.
The Michigan Catholic Conference – public policy voice of all seven Michigan dioceses – is strongly urging a "No" vote on Proposal 2 when voters go to the polls Tuesday, Nov. 4.
Reprogramming cells
Even as Michigan voters prepare to vote on Proposal 2, which if approved would remove restrictions on medical research on human embryos, scientists are working on methods that could make the destruction of human embryos unnecessary.
While backers of Proposal 2 claim bans on embryonic stem-cell research stand in the way of research that has the potential to produce cures for a variety of diseases and conditions, scientists have already successfully reprogrammed adult stem cells from mice to function as pruripotent stem cells – the kind of cells researchers would obtain from human embryos if Proposal 2 passes.
"The reprogrammed cells were not just functionally identical to embryonic stem cells. They also had identical biological structure," said a June 7, 2007 article in Science Daily. —Robert Delaney | People should not want to approve involuntary medical research on human persons, because that would hold huge implications for possible future efforts to impose it on the elderly, people with disabilities or even prisoners on Death Row who are "going to die anyway," says Smith, who is a visiting scholar this fall at St. Paul's Seminary in St. Paul, Minn.
"It treats one human being as a set of spare parts for someone else," she says.
The frozen human embryos in question were "already greatly dishonored in the way they came to be; they were treated like they were a product," she says, noting that they were produced by in vitro fertilization – a method some infertile couples turn to to enhance their chances of having children.
The Church opposes in vitro fertilization because it lacks the unitive aspect (between the husband and wife) of natural procreation, in addition to the problem of creating many "spare" embryos.
Although precisely what should be done with all those spare embryos is "something the Church hasn't had a chance to wrap its mind around yet," Smith says killing them in the process of medical research is clearly wrong.
"I'm one of those who think it would be moral and good to allow other women to gestate these babies and bring them to term. I say let's rescue them from the freezer," Smith says.
And in the absence of an authoritative Church position on the issue, she says any couple would be free to go ahead and "adopt" a frozen embryo and bring it to term.
Smith says she has talked to infertile couples who have discussed the idea, but have rejected it out of an aversion to having to cooperate with the fertility clinics that possess the embryos.
"I can understand that, but I look on it like buying a slave out of slavery – it would be a good thing to do, even though you'd have to deal with the slaveowner to do it," she says.
If the Church should ever say embryo adoption is not permissible, then Smith says she thinks the answer would be "to baptize the frozen embryos, then thaw them and let them go (expire naturally)."
Smith adds that it is odd that such large sums of money are being spent in the effort to legalize embryonic stem-cell research in Michigan, considering that such research elsewhere has not only failed to yield any cures and morally acceptable alternatives are on the horizon.
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