Cloning versus Cures - Whose Life is it Anyway?

Here is an interesting moral dilema. You are trapped in a burning research center with one way out and only have 30 seconds to escape with your hands full. On your lap is a newborn child and in the refrigerated storage room to your right is a box with 1,000 fertilized eggs. You can only take one, the newborn or the fertilized eggs. Which do you choose? Most people would say of course you take the baby but if life begins at conception, which many people believe, wouldn't you save the 1,000 unborn babies instead?

The cloning of embryos for generating stem cells, a process that holds promise for the future treatment of deadly diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson's, is delicate yet straightforward.

It is currently illegal, because of Congress, to use federal funds for any experiment that creates or destroys a human embryo. Creating new embryos through cloning falls squarely under that ban. So does destroying an embryo to create stem cells. It's legal to do both of these things (clone and create human embryonic stem cells) but only with private funds. Meanwhile, Congress remains in a pitched battle over how much of cloning to outlaw. Some federal lawmakers want to ban all forms of cloning, while others want to ban making babies while allowing promising biomedical research that is done exclusively in the lab dish. The House has twice passed legislation that would outlaw all forms of cloning—in 2001 and again in 2003. That legislation stalled in the Senate.

Since human embryonic stem cells are not themselves embryos, however, different rules apply. The accepted view is that research with the cells doesn't fall under Congress' federal funding ban. In 2001, however, President Bush extended the ban to cover all human embryonic stem cells—making an exception only for certain cells (currently estimated at 22 stem cell lines) that had already been created by the time of his announcement. A "line," if you're wondering, is any group of cells that all come from the same original embryo.

In 2002, California became the first state to officially endorse human embryonic stem cell research, including experiments that involve cloned embryos (while banning creating a cloned baby).

The Califorinia Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) was established in 2004 with the passage of Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative. The statewide ballot measure, which provided $3 billion in funding for stem cell research at California universities and research institutions, was approved by California voters, and called for the establishment of an entity to make grants and provide loans for stem cell research, research facilities, and other vital research opportunities.

Based on the election results, Californian's would take the box of fertilized eggs. Is that right, er correct? What would you do?