Against the wishes of many party-split Americans, President Bush vetoed the possibility of experimenting with discarded embryonic stem cells for scientific research. Personal moral authority delegated this controversial decision, ultimately preventing a beneficial avenue towards medical research for degenerating diseases, and supplementation of other valuable knowledge.

The biggest argument presiding around this veto affirms that the aforementioned cells are lifelessly trashed anyway, therefore purposely wasting the inherent value stored in these frozen embryos. Why not expose possibility for the betterment of our actively breathing human lives? It seems only logical. But logic oft fails to surpass morality. Unlike chemical equations and mathematical certainties, ethics bears a deeper soul, less readily and sometimes impossibly defined within mortal minds. Is it quite safe to leave these minds playing with the maybes of our own kind?

Seriously fuzzy ethical scales are weighed when you begin toying with the sanctity and idea of what is and is not life. Already, the relevance of our heartbeats is demeaned with the legalization of abortion for any godforsaken reason. When it comes to issues of testing on potential human beings, you simply cannot separate the facts and reasons from abortion and reproductive freedom.

It’s easy to see why many Americans so easily favor stem cell research, since millions of healthy babies have been killed legally for the past 35 years. Not nearly the same process, but a similar stream of thought erupts. President Bush opposes abortion though he does not currently have the authority to reverse that decision. But he did have and utilize his right to eradicate potentially dangerous ethical repercussions in regards to an already unstable reproductive playground. Fact is, the majority of parents who have chosen the route of frozen embryos do not want them used for research anyway. Those genetic codes belong to somebody and perhaps a reminder is necessary.

Clearly, though, many Americans who oppose abortion still support stem cell research for a multitude of reasons. While abortion is often chosen hastily out of selfish, irresponsible reasons, this research purports the best of causes, supplies an abundance of crucial learning material, and generates hope for millions of people suffering from debilitating diseases. When the President vetoed the research, he vetoed hope in many hearts. Some view him as cold and uncaring for dashing dreams and halting medical advances in a day when people wonder how you could have something tangibly there yet not use it, “just because.”

This is the character-built morality often lost on today’s self-absorbed generations. Tough times and raging opposition coincide with this veto because even some loyal Bush supporters disagree. According to polls, the President’s numbers are down again but He is not easily swayed in light of ever changing public opinion. The President hasn’t always been right or always been wrong, but in reference to this issue, playing it on the safe side of humanity’s legacy cannot possibly be wrong.

If you start here with the embryos and the research, an endless well of scary scientific possibility enters the picture. We are not our own creators and so should we not be, therefore even dipping our little toe in the water of experimentation begs for fear of a genetic society so advanced it swirls out of control. In the wrong hands, such seething power could swell to lethal proportions and it could happen before our eyes like a near silent latch that can never be re-locked.

It seems as if I am way ahead of myself but we humans aren’t known for our perfection or humility or self-control when grasping limitless means. Once you’ve tried something, even a little, temptation to go one step further is that much more emboldened. What seems only a bit quickly becomes many small bites ballooned to a long stretch from appropriate morality, overstepping God’s intended boundaries for mankind.

Researching on these stem cells approaches the edge of an ethical frontier not meant for crossing. The moral margins defining survival laws for our species exist for exceptional reason. In the undeniably scary reality saturating our worldwide lands today, I am in agreement with President Bush’s notion to follow the wisdom of his heart on this one.