Stepping off the edge.

This is a shocking tale. Newborns stolen in the Ukraine to fund an unproven but lucrative 'treatment' that injects their cells into people with various illnesses. I saw the televised version of the report this morning with open-mouthed horror at hearing of mothers who have had their children taken away at birth and never seen again - children who it now appears were killed and dismembered for their 'stem cells'.

But I noticed something that rather undercut the moral outrage expressed by the report. The horror was that newborns were being stolen and killed, as well it might be. But the fact is that the clinic has been quite openly using stem cells from aborted children for some time. The censure they received over this was due to the fact that their work hasn't been proven and peer-reviewed.

The inescapable conclusion is that the 'moral outrage' is simply about the unproven nature of the treatment. If the treatment was undoubtedly effective and was turning out cures, it's quite clear there would be no problem.

"Hold on," cries the modern, foward-thinking type "There would still be outrage if they are kidnapping and killing newborns"

To which I find myself compelled to ask - Why?

If it is morally acceptable to utilize the body of parts of murdered children in effecting cures for illness, what does it matter to you that those children had managed to be born? Is there a substantial difference in the stem cells of a child outside the womb, and a child dismembered within it?

Perhaps you think it is different because the newborns were stolen, while the abortions happened with the mother's consent? Well, you'd have to prove that, given China's cosy record on forced abortion. But even if you could, what have you just said?

Murder for profit - scientific or financial - is acceptable if a relative consents to the murder.

This isn't a slippery slope, it's a sheer cliff-face. You step off the clear boundary that tells you you must not treat humans like commodity body-parts, and you won't gently slide down, you will crash into the abyss.