This is the first in what will become a series of posts on framing debates, which is a necessary part of winning debates.
In this particular case, the subject is cloning stem cells, often called therapeutic cloning. Paul Berg, a professor emeritus at Stanford University, recently made the statement “We are not cloning people, we are cloning stem cells to treat patients.”
That sounds good and people on both the left and right support stem cell research, which supporters hope will lead to therapeutic cloning, but people on the far right like to use words like “murder” when referring to stem cell research. I continue to advocate not sinking to their level, however, I do think the cause of therapeutic cloning could benefit from not using the word cloning. Instead, I propose that people refer to it as “copying cells” or “duplicating cells” which are both just as accurate but without the baggage that the word cloning carries with it.
BTW, the cells in your body replicate (duplicate themselves) all the time. But when scientists do the same thing with stem cells it has the chance to save millions of lives and make better millions more.
