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."

back to Student Work Menu