Stem Cell Research for the General Welfare

On June 20, 2007 former President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13435 that banned The Secretary of Health and Human Services from conducting or supporting research on stem cells which are created from or created by destroying human embryos. The order specifically states:

(b) it is critical to establish moral and ethical boundaries to allow the Nation to move forward vigorously with medical research, while also maintaining the highest ethical standards and respecting human life and human dignity.

The debate of the “moral” issues surrounding stem cell research has its roots in the abortion battle that is being waged in the US. Many opponents of abortion make the argument that taking a life to save a life is not ethical and that an embyo/a fetus is an early form of life. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-212) which recognizes a “child in utero” as a legal victim may give the argument about the definition of life some weight considering US “moral and ethical boundaries”. However, the premise of military combat shows that taking a life to save many others is well within these indistinct boundaries. Still, since 1973, it has been uniformly legal throughout the US to abort a pregnancy except during the 3rd trimester. So how do we decide if the government should control/limit experimental stem cell research? We don’t; we don’t have to.

Public Law and Supreme Court rulings have specifically expressed that abortion (the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus) is legal, but victimizing of an embryo/utero is not. Indirectly, the US has expressed its Pro-Choice policy and a mother should have the right to choose to abort or donate her embryo by the same merit.

Some argue that this may increase the rate of abortions in the US, but studies out of the Guttmacher Institute in New York show that the number of abortions in the US have declined by 8% between 2000 and 2005. This is 2 years prior to the Bush Executive Order. Studies have shown that government intervention has not drastically decreased the incidence of abortions. Since 2001 when former president Bush made his presidential statement to 2005 the rate of reported abortions has decreased on an average of 0.375 per 1,000 abortions per year. This is compared to the average rate of decrease of 0.4125 per 1,000 abortions per year from the peak in 1981 to 2005.

Still we have to ask, “Does stem cell research have enough benefits to compel the US government to get involved in its research?” The National Institute of Health concedes that the promise of the capabilities of stem cells is limited due to our limited research. We are in the early stages of research and cannot make conclusive statements about what stem cells can do, but with more research we can see if the potential of stem cells can be achieved. The Constitution gives the federal government the ability to provide for the general welfare of the United States and by supporting research that could potentially save numerous lives we are directly benefiting the general welfare of the US.

I would go so far as to say that not only should the government support stem cell research, but it is their duty to the people of United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, to promote the general welfare through stem cell research.