Some quick points to remember when talking about embryonic stem cell research. From Concerned Women for America:

• Embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) destroys human lives to “advance science.” The process of extracting stem cells from the embryo destroys it. An embryo is a human being at its earliest stage of life.

• ESCR is utilitarian, not humane. It is immoral to kill human embryos for their stem cells just as it is unethical to kill human babies for their organs. Civilized people do not do such things.

• The debate is over funding, not banning. The political debate raging over ESCR is not over whether to allow it but over who should fund it. Destructive ESCR, though grossly unethical and immoral, is already legal. Federal legislation attempts to force tax payers to fund research that is ethically unsound and medically unproven. American taxpayers should not be forced to fund unethical research, just as they should not be forced to fund abortion.

• The federal government should not create a direct incentive to destroy human embryos. Federal funding will encourage researchers to destroy human embryos for their stem cells or to purchase those cells from researchers who destroyed embryos to obtain them.

• Destructive ESCR has had no medical benefits to date. Touted as the best way to find dramatic medical cures, destructive ESCR has produced zero medical successes while destroying human life. In addition, embryonic stem cells have proved unstable in medical experiments and are difficult for scientists to control and preserve.

• Destructive ESCR is massively overhyped. Not one person has been treated with embryonic stem cells (ESC). Despite extravagant claims that ESC will treat nearly every disease or injury known to mankind, ESC have proven too dangerous in animals—becoming deadly tumors—to even attempt clinical trials in humans.

• Ethical alternatives to destructive ESCR exist in the triumphs of adult stem cells. In contrast to the failure of destructive ESCR, adult stem cells provide nearly miraculous results. Adult stem cells from blood, bone marrow, cord blood, and other sources are already treating a wide array of diseases, including juvenile diabetes, lupus, bladder disease, heart disease, liver disease, sickle cell anemia, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, and stroke damage. Seventy-three diseases or disorders have been successfully treated with adult stem cells thus far.