Stem Cell Research

 

You may have noticed that I have been silent about the moral issues raging around stem-cell research.  The reason, I don't understand the issue, and because I don't understand it I have never ventured an opinion except to acknowledge that there are committed Christians on both sides of this national debate.

 

Recently, however, I was nudged form my ignorance when a grandson of a faith-family member had an accident that resulted in a severed spinal cord; he was told that he would never have use/feeling of his legs. The family chose an experimental program involving stem-cell injections, only the second person in the United States to receive this treatment. It remains to be seen whether or not the treatment will be effective. Please pray for Michael.

 

What about the moral issue? In the literature stem cell research is almost always linked to abortion, which, the more I read, is as they say a "red herring"; it should stand or fall on its own merits. To this point, a former Roman Catholic ethics professor of mine (Margaret Farley) writes:

 "...growing number of Catholic theologians.... do not consider the human embryo in its earliest stages (before development of the primitive streak or implementation) to constitute an individualized human entity with the settled inherent potential to become a human being. I myself stand with the case for embryonic stem cell research". (Quoted in Thumpin' It -The Use and Abuse ofThe Bible in Today'sPresidential Politics, Jacques Berlinerblau, Pg. 57)

 

What do you think - if the moral objections are removed, stem cell research has the potential to help countless numbers of people.  

 

 

In faith,

Pastor Tim