Stem Cell question from a friend.

[Pab Sungenis]

I have a good friend who is battling Hodgkins' disease for the third time. As you can imagine, he's not in the best frame of mind.

These are excerpts from a recent entry at his blog; the full blog can be read http://www.livejournal.com/users/derylykt/">here. Anyone who can help with these questions, please provide some answers here and/or there.

Is there a way (and is it legal) to donate sperm and egg to science in order to create stem cell lines?

My wife wants to know. We plan on having a second child, but after that, no more. My sperm is on ice and will only last another year or so then my line is done. She will still have eggs that she will not be using. She plans on taking my sperm and her eggs and having a scientist combinging them either in-vitro or elsewhere, like a petri dish - but probably not a kitchen countertop, to create embryos specifically for creating stem cell lines and for research into that sort of thing.

A word (okay, some words) about my wife. She is catholic, though doesn't attend church. She was raised for a large part of her childhood by her grandmother, who was the cook for the local catholic elementary school St. Mary's. She spent a great deal of time at the church because of this and saw the hypocrisy behind the facades of the priests and workers. It's tainted her vision of the church. She is, very deep down, religious and Catholic, despite what the church has to say. She does not display it openly, she does not push anyone into or out of their faith, she just practices it quietly to herself - church services be damned.

We had a discussion about my death - about burial vs. cremation. I'd rather be cremated, but I'm leaving the decision to her. Why? Because it won't matter. I'll be dead. But really, the whole burial/memorial process is for others who need to grieve a loss. It sure as hell ain't for the corpse with all the make-up in that veneered box.