Forty years ago, the first child conceived via in vitro fertilization (IVF) was born. Twenty years have passed since scientists isolated embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Technicians value ESCs because they can engineer them into any type of cell or tissue. Financial concerns have led IVF clients and clinicians to create more embryos than they transfer to wombs. These “extra” embryos have served as the main source for ESCs. Harvesting ESCs destroys embryos and puts to death God’s precious human creatures, depriving us every time of the blessing of another neighbor. Happily, embryo-destroying research is unnecessary. Here are ten reasons why:
- Other sources. Researchers have obtained ESCs from placental tissue, umbilical cord blood, and amniotic fluid. These means don’t injure the little ones.
- Adult stem cells. Grown-up bodies also make stem cells. Although they don’t possess all the potential of ESCs, they still offer many possibilities and applications.
- Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). In 2006 a team of experts converted (adult) skin samples into cells functionally equivalent to ESCs. Lower costs and greater accessibility have made this the preferred process for stem cell experiments.
- iPSC advancements. Several treatments utilizing iPSCs have met with promising successes, including trials for stroke, heart damage, spinal cord injury, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and cancers. ESCs have encountered some problems which are almost exclusively connected to the use of ESCs, such as tumor formation and immune rejection.
- Organs-on-a-chip (OOCs). Laboratories have developed circuit boards that have tiny fluid channels. Tissues can grow on these devices, which then substitute for and simulate the activities and mechanics of entire organs. They make possible more precise interactions and observations than ever before.
- Natural Procreative Technology (NaProTech). This approach diagnoses and treats the underlying causes of an individual’s infertility. It serves fertility care rather than fertility control, focusing on medical priorities rather than technological ones. IVF often entirely overlooks these possibilities.
- Embryo adoption. Couples have begun adopting and gestating IVF’s “surplus” embryos. Rather than leaving them in liquid limbo, discarding them altogether, or destroying them for study, this receives these children as the special treasures God has declared them to be.
- We’re better than that. We don’t need to sacrifice children for progress. Our belief in human life’s significance is what drives our need for medical research in the first place. Martyring embryos only undermines that basic belief.
- Better two heads than one. The fewer embryos we slay, the more will survive to apply their minds to scientific investigation and solving illnesses.
- Jesus is real treatment. Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection are the answer to disease and death. Forgiveness and everlasting life are already at work curing the sin that causes it all. God’s grace enables us to carry each other’s crosses until the healing is completed.
Ethical limits in research are not obstacles to compassion but its necessary foundation. When medicine forgets the moral boundaries that protect human life, it risks replacing care with calculation and hope with harm. The rejection of embryo-destructive research does not signal indifference to suffering. On the contrary, it insists that scientific inquiry remain anchored to truth, patience, and reverence for every human being, especially when cures remain elusive.
Authentic medical progress does not begin by deciding whose lives may be spent for the benefit of others. It begins by honestly observing disease, alleviating suffering where possible, and walking faithfully with patients and families through realities that technology cannot yet reverse. In this sense, moral restraint strengthens medicine by directing it toward knowledge that serves persons rather than consumes them, and toward practices that honor dignity even when outcomes are uncertain.
This commitment to ethical medicine is especially visible in the care of those facing progressive and incurable illnesses such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ALS confronts patients and caregivers with a gradual, predictable pattern of decline that demands clarity rather than speculation and accompaniment rather than false promise. Educational resources that speak plainly about ALS disease progression help families prepare for each stage with sobriety, courage, and mutual support, grounding medical decisions in reality instead of desperation.
Such truth-telling is itself a form of care, one that respects the person beyond the disease and affirms that worth does not diminish as strength fades. Here, ethics and compassion converge. Medicine serves life not by sacrificing others in pursuit of a cure, but by offering knowledge, presence, and faithful care to those who suffer, ensuring that even in the face of loss, no one is reduced to a means and no life is treated as expendable.