Stem Cells, Iraqi Children, Dogfighting

[David Sklansky]

Dogfighting is worse than meat eating because dogfighters have the dog,s suffering and death as their final goal. Meat eaters just want pleasure and nutrition and in no way actually want animals to die. Reasonable argument.

But when people try to use the same argument when distinguishing between using stem cells to help the world, and killing innocent Iraqi children to help the world, they are on thin ice.

Those who oppose stem cell research but not bombing Iraqi houses (that are known to contain both innocents and "high value targets") make a much finer distinction. They don't claim that the the stem cell researchers have as their goal the death of the embryos. They only claim that the process "requires" that death. Whereas the house boming doesn't actually require that innocent death.

To me that distinction is nowhere near important enough to allow you to be in favor of random bombing while opposed to stem cell research. And to make this point clearer I propose the follwing hypothetical scenario:

Osama Bin Laden is in a house with six of his children. Any bombing will apparently definitely kill them all. But the president approves the raid for the good of the world and the fact that the deaths of the children are collateral damage but not required for the mission. As the plane approaches, the president is apprised of a curious fact. The setup of the house is such that Osama is in a spot that will allow him to escape death. If he was alone. But because the children are there he won't escape death. It doesn't matter why. Perhaps the less protected children will die and fall on him.

When the president hears this, will he halt the mission? I think it is incredibly unlikely. He will reason that nothing has changed from the original plan which is to kill Osama and unfortunately six of his children. The fact that he has been told that the children's deaths are now "required" will have little impact on him. Nor should it.

Of course none of this matters to those who don't equate embryos with human beings. But it does matter to pro lifers. And I believe that many of these pro lifers instinctively understand my point even if they haven't specifically thought it through. Which is why they support stem cell research even as they oppose abortion. Those pro lifers who feel differently are being unacceptably inconsistent as long as they admit the value of the stem cell research they oppose, but still support that house getting bombed.