The Culture War
By: Valentine
Bystritsky
College Now Course - SCI 1
In today's
world, lines are drawn, lines that distinctly divide people and cannot be
crossed unless you are one of "them." "Them." A vague
term, that can mean essentially anybody at anytime and any place. This division
of the American people is because of some of the basic themes of life, old
versus new, right versus wrong. Who is to decide who is actually right or
wrong? Were we placed on this Earth to find our own destiny, or did our ancestors
give us our destiny? Morality versus distinct knowledge, the power to know,
many philosophers have argued that the power to know through learning can
be the key to opening doors to unthinkable greatness. This is why we are in
school right? Monday through Friday, learning, we learn until we get annoyed
and start doodling in our text books. Nevertheless, we still learn. This knowledge
that I am talking about is probably not what most seventeen year old kids
usually think about. In fact, it's probably not what most adults think about
as well. Are they ignorant? Who knows? It's just a thought. Our knowledge
of the world and our interactions with each other have propelled us to greater
lengths. We can go faster and further - and never stop for a break. We've
gone to the moon and back, have taken pictures of distant galaxies and uncovered
them to the world, we have split the atom. In fact, who could've thought that
we would ever discover the atom. We have mapped out all the elements we can
find. We have enriched ourselves with knowledge of other cultures and compared
them to ours, and we accepted them and sometimes in history - we have almost
destroyed them. We have built weapons that can wipe out anything that breathes
or even moves for miles and miles and can kill anybody about a million different
unfortunate ways. Shame on us, we humans are animals of contrast, but nevertheless
- we have reached, what some may argue, the apex of our existence. I hope
I don't bore you with this rambling, but I will attempt to explore the beauty
of science and its interaction with the beauty of religion through an issue
that is dividing us Americans and contributing to this massive culture war
that some people have never noticed. An issue that has contributed to the
outcome of our last presidential election and not only has the power to spark
this culture war, but has the power to help people, I beg of you, the reader,
to open your eyes and not be narrow minded. My goal is to ignite the thought
process in you - if you believe that this is some senseless writing and does
not pertain to you as a young person, then you have probably failed my request
already.
This famed issue is stem cell research. To give you some background information,
let's start with the scientific facts about stem cells. The branch of biology
that studies stem cells is embryology, a disciplinary study of science that
deals with the formation, early growth, and development of living organisms.
At the time of fertilization, where the sperm enters the egg (both the egg
and sperm cell (or haploid cells) contain only half the genetic information
to form a complex cellular combination, only when united they have one-hundred
percent of the genetic information) a zygote cell is created. The zygote cell,
or fertilized egg, in animal development, later splits into eight cells (by
way of mitosis), then into a more complex cellular combination called the
blastula stage. After the blastula stage this combination of cells begins
to appear like a hollow ball. This "hollow ball" is made up of stem
cells. As various cell movements occur, the hollow ball begins to bend and
twist in such a way where different areas of the ball begin to be geared for
growing into specialized cells. So, after zygote begins to split you have
stem cells. Stem cells can grow into any part of the body; grow into any specialized
cells, such as liver cells, nerve cells, heart muscle cells, stomach cells
and so on. These specialized cells are part of a hierarchy where they make
up the organ tissues which make up organs and organ systems and then the whole
animal - which, in our case, is a human.
Here is where political science theorems, bioethics, economics and religion
kick in. Welcome to the culture war. Now that you are armed with your scientific
information you can formulate an educated opinion on this issue. The United
States has always been conservative compared to most nations, in fact all
nations. Our government has been on its descent into ultra-conservatism ever
since President Bush stepped into office. What I mean by "ultra"
is that basically, every decision that our President has made has been mainly
based on his own fundamental values. Examples include issues from this past
year, such as abortion rights and gay marriages. For proof that the people
of our country are growing conservative, just take a look at the last Presidential
election. Is this conservatism detrimental to advancement of science in the
U.S.? If you can go back to the intro, "them" are either the liberals
or the conservatives. But, it is our belief that this is not a question of
politics, which most people are distorted about, this is a question of life,
the advancement of human knowledge, of biology and the advancement of medical
science that will save lives, help people who are physically experiencing
pains of living. Why is it that people from the "heartland" must
be anti-"this" just to match their fundamental beliefs? Here comes
their religious basis for when life begins. The argument for halting stem
cell research or to stop taking embryonic stem cells is that life begins at
conception. At the exact moment where the haploid sperm cell breaks into the
haploid egg cell - life has been initiated. Most of these people who are saying
this are oblivious to the fact that there is an abundance of in-vitro fertilized
eggs. In-vitro fertilized eggs are cultured in laboratories, and an in-vitro
egg will never develop fully through all the stages and become a fetus in
a test tube, so this means that this is where we can get stem cells! Unfortunately,
the number in-vitro fertilized eggs is not enough to cure so many people or
to even get so far into stem cell research where we will know its real truth.
Not to generalize people from certain states, but that is the basis for these
people's arguments - that life begins at conception or there is a risk of
killing a potential life.
Recently, this so called culture war has no choice, but to move along towards
one direction under today's government. Still, people must educate themselves
to participate in this nationwide debate and understand all sides. Ignorant
counterforce is just as good as none. Science is such a powerful tool for
our future and has such great potential in saving lives that it must not be
ignored. In hopes of provoking thought with this article, we leave you with
a quote from a person who was considered a political genius in his time, Vladimir
Lenin. He said once "knowledge kills fear."