A key argument in the embryonic stem cell debate — widely invoked by scientists, patient advocacy groups, and politicians —
involves the fate of frozen embryos.
Barack Obama put it this way in 2008: “If we are going to discard those embryos, and we know there is potential research that could lead to curing debilitating diseases — Alzheimer’s, Lou Gehrig’s disease — if that possibility presents itself, then I think that we should, in a careful way, go ahead and pursue that research.”
The head of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, embraced this same line of reasoning by