An article in the NZ Herald on Monday quoted Stephen Hawking as dismissing arguments against embryonic stem cell research (labelling George Bush and others as reactionary, whatever he means by that). Hawking’s argument is that embryos used in research “are going to die anyway.” He claims, therefore, that this kind of research is no different from taking organs from dead people.
Well, whether or not you buy this argument, I thought it was interesting that in Friday’s Herald was another article reporting that for the first time British researchers are going to be permitted by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority to take viable embryos from women for research purposes in return for providing free IVF services to those women. Here, surely, Hawkins argument breaks down completely.
Remarkably, the article contrasts this with the use of the failed IVF eggs that Hawking seems to be talking about -
“Scientists at the institute have already extracted stem cells from one cloned human embryo that was made from spare “failed to fertilise” eggs left over from fertility treatment.However, these eggs are poor quality and the success rate for creating cloned embryos was extremely low.
The scientists would like access to a source of good-quality fresh eggs from younger women to improve the chances of creating cloned human embryos for stem cell studies.”
What this seems to imply is that the argument Hawking makes is really redundant – the embryos that are “going to die anyway” are actually not very useful. In addition, not only are embryos going to being destroyed in the course of this new research that would not necessarily be destroyed otherwise, couples are effectively being paid to permit this. Whatever you think of this research, this news helps to move the debate away from the spurious arguments advanced by Hawking.