Does the End Result Justify the Means?

I sometimes get frustrated when people who are supposed to be Christians buy into the unethical views of the liberal media. Simply because a particular view is broadcast on the evening news some Christians will immediately accept it as if there were nothing wrong with that view.

I am speaking in particular of the debate over stem cell research. There seems to be many Christians who have bought into the idea that it is ok to use the stem cells from embryos or aborted fetuses/babies to do research for the curing of other human ailments, including spinal paralysis and alzheimer's disease. Even the former first lady, Nancy Reagan, is in favor of using stem cells from aborted fetuses and embryos to do research that might cure the disease that took her husband from her in his remaining years. All these emotional appeals tug at one's heart but we must refrain from basing our ethnics on emotive reasoning, however passionate the plea.

What is wrong with using body parts from aborted fetuses? Does the end justify the means? What if cures can be effected through this sort of research? That's rather like asking if it's ok to use the body parts of an adult victim of murder to save someone else's life? Just because there's a body there does not make it right to use the parts to save someone else. Are we really just spare parts? Is a murdered fetus just an "it" or does it have a soul that is now in heaven? The implications of treating the human body as just another biological machine depreciates the value and sanctity of each individual human life. It undercuts the very meaning and definition of "human rights." Each person is unique, created in the image and likeness of God by virtue of our descent from Adam and Eve. To pit one human life against another is to violate the very nature of the command, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Maybe I'm not being clear. Maybe I'm a bit emotive in my reasoning as well. All I know is that intuitively and biblically I believe that using aborted babies or fetuses for research is ethically, morally, and theologically wrong. May God judge between us.