Stephen P. Garvey is a professor at Cornell Law School in New York who has taught courses on capital punishment and the philosophy of criminal law. He has written numerous articles on the death penalty and represented death row inmates.

Joseph Bottum is an author based in South Dakota and a former editor of the conservative-leaning interfaith journal First Things. Contact through Random House publicist Katie Moore.

Read a Feb. 15, 2005, USA Today story about how states are struggling to weigh moral values while pursuing legislation to attract stem cell research.

Robert Blecker is a professor at New York Law School and an expert on capital punishment.

Carol Steiker is a professor at Harvard Law School and an expert on the death penalty and criminal law.

Erik C. Owens is an associate professor of the practice in theology at Boston College, where he also directs the international studies program. He is the co-editor of three books, including Religion and the Death Penalty: A Call for Reckoning and Gambling: Mapping the American Moral Landscape.

Read an August 24, 2006 article about the advancement in harvesting stem cells from embryos without harming them in Nature.

See a March 24, 2013 ScienceDaily article about stem cells found in amniotic fluid.

See an April 5, 2007, Stateline.org article about three new Democratic governors who have joined six other state leaders in supporting stem cell research.