Buddhism and stem cell research

[sophiaserpentia]

"Buddhism believes in rebirth and teaches that individual human life begins at conception. The new being, bearing the karmic identity of a recently deceased individual, is therefore as entitled to the same moral respect as an adult human being. For this reason, Buddhism would see the moral issues raised by stem cell research as similar to those raised by IVF treatment involving the destruction of spare embryos and abortion, regardless of the researchers’ benevolent intentions or the subsequent positive consequences of the experiments." from 'No Harm' Applies to Stem Cell Embryos: One Buddhist's View

The earliest Buddhist scriptures show Buddha discouraging his students from spending time on unanswerable questions, such as the existence of God, the nature of evil, or what happens after death.

Reincarnation is not a necessary, or shall I say, core Buddhist belief. Many Buddhists inherit this belief from Hinduism, but I have seen other permutations of the law of karma expressed within Buddhism.

The use of embryonic stem cells in research is potentially unethical because of the way these cells are extracted -- but if there is no immortal soul, which is an unanswerable question (my own view sees the individual soul or spirit as a "blossoming," as from a grapevine), then it seems a dead end to argue that stem cell extraction is unethical because of reincarnation.