Should the State legislate for embryonic stem cell research?

12% YES 88% NO

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• It's hard to know if either writer expressed their articulate and informed viewpoints conscious of the anniversaries of the writing "humanae Vitae" or Jefferson's declarational prose. We are created equally and hold that truth to be self-evident but acknowledging our epicurian right to pursue happiness need insure the fertility of future generations be enhanced and the wealthiest of health service consumers hold small hope of conquering diseases of degeneration. It shall always be unlawful for the process of creation to be anything other than natural even if through rape and sure God loves IVF babies the same. Oh, but then there were the frozen embryos who had a one in three chance of fertilization which have in effect due to some slip of marital breakdown property law s and torts in Ireland been rescued from the limbo of a freezer in a Rathgar IVF clinic to champion the rights of the unborn to a one in three chance of full term gestation. Yes. Quite. It's all so confused, both the ethical and faith based arguments for and against a science without immediate benefits other than affording children to the barren. So, I'd suggest (as I'm wont to do) that if Ireland is to legislate for or against such things it starts elsewhere in understanding the myriad problems. (1) Ought medical treatments or cures arising from embryo research for Alzheimers etc. be available free to all socio-economic classes on the Health Service? (2) Should IVF treatments be available free too all citizens who regardless of the choice they made in partner or womb or gonads they have found themselves with, wish have children? (3) is an animal human hybrid chimera egg just a little animal or just a little human? (4) are eggs left in the freezer in limbo effectively aborted? Perhaps at end some properly framed questions of ethics are just too tough hit on either end of their shell and really require us to examine other areas of our society's ills and care or lack of care for same.
  iosaf mac diarmada  Spain
• The Irish Council for Bioethics is playing word games by stating that the human embryo has 'significant moral value' but not 'full moral status'. Clearly the embryo is alive and human. Its life, therefore, should not be used as a means to an end. When you strip away the ICB's double-talk, there is no protection for human life or human dignity. As a society we either defend all human life or else we begin to categorise human beings and their value based on some selfish utilitarian criteria. The ICB are not the first group to try and dehumanise human beings. There are many other chilling precedents in recent history. The ICB has managed to reach a new low in verbal chicanery as part of the attempt to rationalise an indefensible position.
  Jaclyn Smith  Ireland
• The two commissions set up by the Fianna Fail government to deliberate upon the moral status of the human embryo, CAHR and the ICB, have voted 37 to 1 against according the most vulnerable human beings even the most basic of human rights. Fianna Fail have successfully hoodwinked the dumb Irish electorate by "loading" these charlatan commissions while at the same time giving the impression that a serious and unbiased debate was being paid for by our money. All of the major arguments put forth by the two commissions have been successfully rebuked by at least 20 Irish scientists and academics over the last 10 days, none of whom (surprise surprise) were considered for the ICB. Well done Fianna Fail, politics trumps good science and good ethics yet again.
  Tom  Ireland
• Yes, I do not believe that an embryo is a full fledged human being (as Ruth Cullen contends). Let the scientists do their research!
  Conor  Ireland
• The principle of protecting life from the start of embryonic life should be respected. Those who have an elastic conscience show much muddled thinking on this
  John D Walsh  Ireland
• Having read the report on this issue, it is clear that the findings of this report Council while deserving consideration have been overtaken by the breakthroughs that has taken place in adult stem cells and in the area of pluripotent adult stem cells. Science is developing in this area and would I suggest too fast for the Irish Council for Bioethics.
  Martin  Ireland
• The recent report from the Irish Council for Bioethics (ICB) recognises the humanity of the human embryo but goes on to state that it should be legal to kill it to allow research take place. This is an eerily cold and callous position to adopt. The human embryo is not potential human life. It is human life with potential. The editorial in yesterday¿s Irish Times (12-5-08) also comes out in favour of allowing the destruction of the human embryo for research purposes. And yet all the stem cell research breakthroughs taking place involve adult stem cells, which is perfectly ethical. Surely we should concentrate all our efforts in this particular field of research. Both the ICB and the Irish Times have adopted positions that envisage the taking of human life on the basis that the end justifies the means. This is a truly disturbing development. Brenda O¿Reilly
  Brenda O'Reilly  Ireland
• Adult stem cell research is non-controversial and ethically sound.
  Seán Ó Raghallaigh  Ireland
• As Ruth Cullen points out there are so many ways of getting stem cells with proven results. It's time to stop and look at this issue from a moral perspective. Why would scientists need to use embyros? How much of this relates to scientists continuing to push out the barriers of human knowledge just because they know how. Let us think long and hard if we want to become a society that ignores moral values at the expense of scientific knowledge. What a pity if we become blinded by our own pride
  maura farrell  Ireland
• Government shouldn't get involved, should be left up to scientists and individuals.
  Aoife  Ireland