More on the stem cell front with a simple question: Would you destroy Trey to save your life? Would you destroy Trey to save someone you love (most likely against their wishes)?

Sorry folks, but these are the questions that need to be asked and answered. And those who would kill someone to save someone else will have to live with the stain that kind of thinking leaves on your reputation.

Tuesday, President Bush went before cameras holding a month-old baby named Trey Jones. The picture raised a question supporters of embryonic stem cell research would rather not answer: Would the world be better off if Trey had been killed as an embryo to advance medical research?

That is what would happen to thousands of other embryos under the bill passed last week by the House of Representatives, at least if the supporters’ hopes are realized — and it would happen with the federal government’s approval and help….

…Even some anti-abortion lawmakers found ways to rationalize ending lives to combat disease. “Who can say prolonging life is not pro-life?” asked Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, Missouri Republican.

Do I need to remind people here that the Nazi and Japanese experiments on human beings were done under the same pathetic rationalizations.

Supporters of embryonic stem cell research say opposition can only be attributed to dogmatic religious faith, and that Mr. Bush is pandering to the religious right. But you don’t have to be a believer (I am not) to think there is something wrong with destroying human life, however immature, just because it may be advantageous for those of us already born.

It is easy to ignore the nature of what are called mere “clumps of cells” or “blastocysts.” But all of us are clumps of cells, and all of us were once tiny blastocysts — separate and unique human beings at the earliest stage of life. The House-endorsed research means ending some human beings’ lives.

Our brave military men and women are out there dying to protect lives. Why are we here debating whether to kill innocent human life at its most fragile stage of growth in order to gamble on whether there is some magic potion cure to be gained?

Count me out. I would die to protect those I love dearly. I would kill if they were attacked by some evil person. But I would not kill an innocent, defenseless life for any of us.