".. a piece of genetic material taken from your own body and inserted into a sterile egg to create a batch of undifferentiated cells to reinsert into your body to save your life ?"
"The stem cells that are used for such potentially life-saving procedures are at such an extremely early stage of development that there is no biological possibility that the beginnings of a mind exist . There is absolutely no feeling , no emotion , no thought , no sense of pain . The batch of cells is still an object . They are the very beginnings of the body where the beginnings of the mind ( or , for that matter , a soul , if one is of the opinion that a soul must include some sense of mind ) are very far off . However , unless I am mistaken in the biology of this particular batch of cells , they could potentially develop into an actual person ( where , for me , person means not only body but some sense of mind or soul as well ) . This sense of potential personhood should not be taken lightly . This would not be a case of a woman 's right over her own body . This would be the case of deliberately generating living human cells ( note : this is not equal to a living person ) for medical reasons benefiting a living person . In the balance of having some respect for the idea that these cells could potentially become a person ( again , still far off from being actual people - i.e . starting to have a mind ) , I would only condone using such stem cells if it is a case of saving the life of an existing person - be it myself or anyone else . I would not , for example , condone use of stem cells to help alleviate a medical condition which is not life threatening ."
"piece of genetic material taken from your own body and inserted into a sterile egg to create a batch of undifferentiated cells to reinsert into your body to save your life"
"This would be the case of deliberately generating living human cells ( note : this is not equal to a living person ) for medical reasons benefiting a living person . In the balance of having some respect for the idea that these cells could potentially become a person"