Excellent observation, Mona. Bless you.

"(T)he cheerleaders for embryonic research probably are the same people who don't want to drill for oil in ANWR," you write. That is purely presumptive speculation. I happen to be in favor of both, as I'm sure plenty of others are. You then say, "The 'nobody wants them' argument is morally bankrupt, but completely consistent with our culture — a culture that grants human dignity only to those people who are 'wanted.' " No, we grant human dignity to actual PEOPLE, not pinhead-sized clumps of 100 or so undifferentiated cells. A blastocyst -- medically speaking, it's not even an embryo yet -- has no nervous system, no brain, no consciousness. Ipso facto, it isn't a person. As comedian Bill Maher pointed out, to equate it with a human life is like saying life begins when you're just THINKING about (having sex with) somebody.