Editorial dodges responsibility

The NZ Herald editorial of 23 December insists that parents must control the use of spare human embryos created through IVF. If parental consent is a proxy for the rights of embryos, should not the law be a proxy for the decision of those parents who cannot be found? Quite clearly the missing parents belong to the camp of those who favour IVF and related medical advances, rather than to the opposing camp represented in the Herald columns recently by the Roman Catholic Church and Right to Life New Zealand. Why then does the editorial decide against the parents when it ends by parroting the words of the RC Church about respectfully allowing embryos to die?
The expression “allow to die” is an attempt to do two morally reprehensible things. Firstly, it seeks to disguise the fact that a decision is in fact being made and secondly, it tries to avoid taking any responsibility for the decision. Let us be clear: choosing not to act is just as much a decision as choosing to act. The editorial preference is not only to destroy the embryos, but also to destroy the hopes of many people who suffer from Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and other diseases which one day may be curable through the use of stem cells.