Embryos Under the Microscope: the diverging meanings of life - Jane Maienschein

Read: 05.10.16

Are human embryos entitled to personhood? 

As advancements in stem cell research and embryo handling techniques steadily rise, we see a societal split when it comes down to judging the moral grounds behind such studies. 

Maienschein describes:

"Position 1: I believe that an embryo is a person. I believe that the fetus feels pain at twenty weeks. Therefore, life is good, and abortion is bad. This means that we must never do embryo research.

Position 2: I know that an embryo is not fully formed and that it is very different from later developmental stages. I can see the differences, I can see the gradual emergence of form and function, and I know from neurobiological studies that fetuses cannot feel pain at twenty weeks. We can see fetal behaviors that do not conform to what we know about neural reactions during pain. More research, carried out responsibly, will help inform wise decision-making." 

I do agree with much of Maienschein's argument that embryos are different from human beings, and this reading made me revisit how I previously imagined embryos to be, but her writing is just ridiculously skewed. None of the words in position 1's argument go over two syllables, with the exception of the subject at hand— "embryos", while position 2 is written to appeal to the intellectuals with words like "neurobiological" and "gradual emergence". She's even gone far enough to vanquish the reader's shadow of doubt through the false promise "research, carried out responsibly". I still can't get over the intended jump in her description of position 1 from "I believe that fetus feels pain at twenty weeks" to "life is good, and abortion is bad". Way to be condescending.

The text also had a detailed history of the study of embryology and stem cell research which was insightful, but the overall pushy nature of the author left a bad taste. I expected an objective here-are-the-facts narrative to be delivered but instead received a you-don't-even-know-how-embryos-look-like-your-opinion-is-"metaphysically-inspired"-shit. 

Informative, but a very boring read.