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ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (Behind the curtain)

A MORAL DILEMMA

What is ALS?
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease," is a progressive
neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor
neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles
throughout the body.

What is ALS Ice Bucket Challenge?

The Ice Bucket Challenge is a campaign started by the ALS Association to raise awareness and
donations for ALS. The challenge involves people getting doused with buckets of ice water on
video, posting that video to social media, and then nominating others to do the same, all in an
effort to raise ALS awareness. According to the ALS Association, people can either accept the
challenge or make a donation to an ALS charity of their choice, or do both.

Where do the donations go?

Most of the donations, nearly $100 million, that ALS Association received was used in funding a
research to find cure for the ALS disease. However, the research uses an embryonic stem cell
that has life on its own, which makes it immoral for most of us.

What is Embryonic Stem Cell Research?

Embryonic stem cell research is speculative medical research (it has never resulted in clinical
treatments) that is predicated on the destruction of embryonic human life. The process uses
stem cells harvested from embryos conceived through vitro fertilization (IVF) that have been
donated for research purposes rather than being implanted into a womans uterus. The
embryos are killed during the process of harvesting their cells and then are discarded
afterwards.

Why Embryonic Stem cell?

Stem cells are responsible for the production and maintenance of the human bodys major
organs. This gives scientists hope. In addition to helping us fight the likes of cancer, which
is caused by abnormal cell division and differentiation, stem cells could cure a number of
other diseases. Therefore, it has the ability to regenerate damage cells.

Our Point of View

The issue here is that when the cells, which are beneficial to the research, are taken from the
zygote, the zygote dies. There are times when two people mate for the purpose of extracting
the beneficial cell out of the union of the egg and the sperm so they could use it to support
researches like this one. Even if the experiment is for the sake of science, we still have to
understand that life begins to exist upon the formation of the zygote. If the stem cell research is
formally implemented, its process will eventually kill the zygote. Thus, they take away their right
to live and their right to have a proper future of an individual.

Maxim (Situation & Action)

Now, if i am in a situation where in I have ALS, shall I undergo an embryonic stem cell surgery
wherein I could destroy a possible life just to prolong mine? I will undergo that surgery if it is a
matter of life and death, regardless of people who might be affected or hurt. It is my right as a
person to live the way I want to. It is not selfishness, but love of self. No normal person would
want to end his/her life if she/he has the means to continue living. I would do the same too. I
will do everything that is within my power to survive and have my illness cured.

Universalization
Is it possible not to undergo an embryonic stem cell therapy? There is nothing wrong with trying
to save a life, but choosing one's life over another is inhumane. The zygote that grows in a vitro
or what we call "test tube baby, is in no way different from a zygote growing in a uterus. The
zygote has a life and is in its way to becoming a fully developed human being, therefore it has
the right to live. Just because it is less developed, doesn't mean it is any less of a person. Saying
that we would undergo embryonic stem cell therapy is like saying that it is fine to take another
person's life for our own sake.
Making it a universalized maxim is not possible. Making it a universalized maxim is not possible.
For the reason that if every person is permitted to take one's life for his/her welfare, then it will
make the laws useless and illogical. Even if there is a huge possibility that embryonic stem cell
surgery could be a big help in curing an ALS patient, the fact that every life is equally important
will always hold true. Even if there is a huge possibility that embryonic stem cell surgery could
be a big help in curing an ALS patient, the fact that every life is equally important will always
hold true.

Duty
We haven't shown the impossibility of not undergoing an embryonic stem cell surgery being
universal and necessary, so i cannot conclude that undergoing such surgery is willed universal
and necessary, ergo, we have an imperfect duty.