C'elle: Collecting Stem Cells Without Killing the Unborn

For a long time, my libertarian leanings allowed me to dodge the moral question of whether abortion is right or wrong, giving me a simple escape of saying, "not my body, not my choice." Especially given the fact that I am male, this seemed like a default position that did not require much thought and would not invite any controversy.

Libertarianism has a very basic central tenet, however: all individuals have inherent rights that prohibit the initiation of certain actions against them by others, such as physical violence, unless the individual initiates an attack on another unjustly. Then as now, I believe in this absolutely.

When I was teaching an introductory ethics course during my MA studies, one of the articles I gave my students to read really shook my tree in this regard. Because of the argument put forth by the particular philosopher, Don Marquis, in his piece, Why abortion is immoral, I realized I could not so easily maintain my "hands off" approach to the topic if I were to continue to maintain my libertarianism.

In short, Marquis makes the argument that we find it immoral to kill human beings because doing so deprives them of their future (this is speaking in terms of murder, not self defense, of course). As a libertarian, I simply must agree with this. A fetus, regardless of its developmental stage, also has a future that it can be denied. That it is not aware of this does not matter; we know the difference between killing it and allowing it to develop fully - left alone, it will become a human being like us. Therefore, if the former is wrong, how can the latter not be? I find it inconsistent to extend this consideration to one class of human but not to another.

I bring this up because of an article I came across on CNNMoney regarding stem cells and their potential for curing a wide variety of human ailments. Many maintain that we must allow abortion to remain legal because without it we may have a hard time getting valuable stem cells. However, many advances have been made that now allow us to get these potent cells from a multitude of sources that do not require the killing of the unborn.



The company written about in the article, C'elle, has a way to harvest stem cells from menstrual blood. Here's a press release issued by the company about this:

Taking Control: Future Therapies for a Host of Serious Diseases May Be Found in Women's Menstrual Blood

July 07, 2008: 01:28 PM EST


OLDSMAR, Fla., July 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- With today’s hectic lifestyle, where most women are juggling careers, family, relationships, and a host of activities, the idea of possibly facing a serious illness in the future is not something that readily comes to mind -- especially when a woman is in the prime of her life. But what most women don’t know, is that the key to treating a number of possibly life-threatening diseases that she, a parent, a sibling or even her children may face in later years, such as osteoporosis, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, may be found within her own body -- in vital stem cells, which can now be harvested from her own menstrual blood.

Now, thanks to the revolutionary research and technology of C’elle, a service dedicated to providing women with a safe and easy method of collecting and preserving stem cells found in her menstrual fluid each month, even the busiest woman can take control of her future, right in the privacy of her own home. With C’elle’s non-invasive collection process, menstrual cells are processed and cryo-preserved (stored at a very low temperature) for potential cellular therapies that may be used in the future. These self-renewing cells one day may even be used for sports medicine or cosmeceutical treatments, such as anti-aging therapies.

"C’elle enables and empowers a woman to take control of her future health, and possibly of those genetically closest to her, in a fast, painless and stress free way," said Michelle Kay, Marketing and Sales Manager for C’elle. "We live in exciting times, as science and technology are discovering how extremely valuable menstrual blood stem cells really are, and the enormous treatment potential they represent for future therapies. C’elle’s ongoing research is supporting these promising findings."

For more information about C’elle, please call 1-877-892-3553 or visit www.celle.com.

I like this. I look forward to the many benefits that stem cells can provide to us, but I cannot condone killing innocents to get them. Despite the claims of the pro-abortionists who have a vested interest in promoting infanticide (there's money in that lobby, after all), we do not need this in order to get the life saving therapies stem cells can provide.