BOB ABERNETHY: As President Bush approaches a decision on whether the Federal government should fund research on embryonic human stem cells, religious groups are on both sides of the debate.

For many, the fundamental issue is the moral status of tiny, one-week-old human embryos, no bigger than a pinprick. In each one are so-called stem cells that can grow into any kind of human tissue. Scientists think these cells can help them find cures for many severe illnesses. But harvesting those cells kills the embryos.

Ethicists say the right and wrong of destroying even unwanted embryos in order to do promising medical research depends on what you think those embryos are. If they have the moral status of persons, many argue, then they can not be treated as a means to even the most humanitarian end. If they are other than future persons, then doing the research may seem the greater good.

Here is a sampling of the religious lineup in the stem cell debate:

The U.S. Roman Catholic Bishops oppose the research as "immoral, illegal, and unnecessary." They say life is sacred from the moment of conception.

The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the Southern Baptist Convention are also opposed, for the same reason. "Human embryos," says the SBC, "are the tiniest of human beings."

On the other side, the Presbyterian Church USA approves the research when the goals are "compelling and unreachable by other means."

This week, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations agreed, saying, "an isolated fertilized egg does not enjoy the full status of personhood."

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism also approves, saying what would be "immoral and unethical" is cutting off funds for promising medical research.

More now on religion and the stem cell debate from Kim Lawton.

Listen to the audio version of Kim Lawton's discussion about the stem cell debate with Professors Cahill and Wheeler.

KIM LAWTON: Joining me are Sondra Wheeler, Professor of Christian Ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary here in Washington, D.C., and Lisa Sowle Cahill, Professor of Theology at Boston College. She joins us from Boston. Lisa, we heard a lot from the pope this week about the issue. What is the theology behind the Catholic Church's position that an embryo has the moral status of a person?

PROFESSOR LISA SOWLE CAHILL (Boston College): Well, I think there are a couple of concerns. To speak first of all in religious terms, if you think of doctrines like creation or even human sinfulness and the fall, it really encourages us to put the way we treat life against a bigger horizon and to be cautious about our own activity. The whole idea that the embryo is a person is really a philosophical idea more than a strictly religious one. It's based on an idea that as soon as you have an individual human life you have a person. The church even says that we don't know that for sure philosophically, but we should give the embryo the benefit of the doubt and be especially protective of it.

LAWTON: Is there a distinction to be made between an embryo developing in a woman's womb and when it's not developing, it's in a petri dish in a lab?

CAHILL: Well, of course there is the interest of the woman at stake, and that's very important if she is pregnant. But from the standpoint of the embryo alone, the Catholic Church, at least the official church, would say no, that that embryo is still the same kind of being no matter where it exists.

LAWTON: And Sondra, Protestants have come down all over the map on this. What are some of the theological positions they're taking?

PROFESSOR SONDRA WHEELER (Wesley Theological Seminary): Well, they range from a position that would say it's already problematic to fertilize an ovum outside the body, to create an embryo outside the body because it removes the germination and transmission of human life from the context of the marital relationship, from the personal union of husband and wife. And in that way it is very close to the Catholic underpinning of their objection. There are also those who regard the creation of embryos for reproductive purposes [as] acceptable, who are willing to tolerate in vitro fertilization as a way to get around medical problems with conception but who are either completely prohibitive or very, very restrictive of the destruction of embryos, who want either to implant all fertilized embryos or to create essentially no more embryos than is minimally necessary to accomplish the reproductive purpose. So they're going to oppose stem cell research because of the destruction of embryos. And then there are those who are cautiously tolerant of stem cell research, provided that it's done within the 15-day window of embryonic life before implantation would occur and done only on embryos that cannot be used for the reproductive purposes for which they were created.