There Are No 'Excess' Human Beings
by Ken Connor
Posted Jul 18, 2006

This week the U.S. Senate will make life and death decisions when it takes stem cell research into consideration. All those who seek justice should be on high alert: the Senate will be deciding whether or not human dignity will be preserved at all stages of human development. Three bills are up for consideration. The first is called the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act (S. 3504). This act would make it illegal for scientists to use, create, or gestate human beings to harvest their organs, body parts or tissue. In other words, scientists would be prohibited from creating embryos specifically for the purpose of "farming" or "cannibalizing" them for spare parts.

Imagine a world where human beings have become so greedy, so self-obsessed, that they see others not as creatures made in the image of God, but as mere "junk-yards" from which to retrieve spare parts if necessary. Human beings are more than the sum of their parts and their lives should not be destroyed because one or more of their parts may be of benefit to another. Passage of the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act will send the message that human beings are more than the aggregation of their organs and, regardless of their stage of development, they are of infinite worth, value and dignity. the rest