President Bush considers the religious questions surrounding the use of human embryos for medical research, ethicists from a variety of faiths are asking the administration to broaden its circle of moral advisers.
So far, the fallout from Bush's forthcoming decision on the use of federal funds for embryonic research has been mostly framed in political terms, such as the effect it will have on "pro-life" Christian voters.
But on Monday, Bush met in Italy with Pope John Paul II, who urged the president to oppose the use of embryonic stem cells to help cure a variety of fatal and debilitating diseases.
Some leaders of the Christian right see the issue as a test of how far Bush will bend away from their hard-line anti-abortion stance.
But that simplified view of the religious community obscures the fact that many people of faith -- including some conservatives who oppose abortion -- favor regulated stem cell research using unwanted embryos stored in fertility clinics.
The Rev. Karen Lebacqz, a Protestant professor of theological ethics at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, said it was important to remember that these disputed embryos are tiny clusters of cells that don't look like embryos or feel pain.
"We don't have a sentient being here," said Lebacqz. "Everyone agrees we have life here, but do we offer it the same level of protection as a fully developed human life?"
Lebacqz, who is ordained in the United Church of Christ, said she favored stem cell research because there were other fundamental values to consider -- such as love of neighbor and social justice.
"This research can really help people suffering from paralysis or Alzheimer's," she said.
Lebacqz said maintaining government funding and involvement in research would help stop laboratory abuses of early embryonic life.
"We need to regulate these new medical interventions," she said. "Leaving this to the private arena is terribly dangerous in the long run. The real public debate should be over patenting and licensing and who gets access to this technology."
Over the last two years, several Protestant denominations have taken conflicting stands on stem cell research.
At its annual policy-making convention last month, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) overwhelmingly approved a resolution that called embryonic research "morally and ethically acceptable."
Prohibiting research, the church said, would "elevate the showing of respect to human embryos above that of helping persons whose pain and suffering might be alleviated."
At the other end of the Protestant spectrum, 100 leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, called on Congress to outlaw stem cell research.
"Human embryos are not mere biological tissues or cluster of cells," they said in a 1999 resolution. "They are the tiniest of human beings."
Last week, one of the top executives in the United Methodist Church, which counts President Bush as one of its members, urged the administration to extend its moratorium on stem cell research using human embryos.
"Such practices seem to be destructive of human dignity and speed us further down the path that ignores the sacred dimensions of life and personhood and turns life into a commodity to be manipulated, controlled, patented and sold," said Jim Winkler, the top staff executive of the United Methodist Board on Church and Society.
Jewish ethicists have a different view of stem cell research from many Roman Catholic and conservative evangelical leaders.
While Orthodox Jews and liberal Reform movement adherents sometimes differ as to the morality of abortion, there is unusual agreement about the value of embryonic stem cell research.
"The questions the Catholic Church raises are important ones, but they are not the same questions that arise in our faith tradition," said Professor Laurie Zoloth, a Jewish studies scholar at San Francisco State University.
This research destroys once-frozen embryonic cell clusters that are around 2 weeks old, and would otherwise be discarded. Few Jewish ethicists, she said, place overriding value on unwanted embryonic life at such an early stage of development.
"Personhood begins at birth," Zoloth said. "Jews are less interested in the moral status of the embryo, but there is a Jewish duty and obligation to save human life."