CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
October 31, 2004
PETITIONS FOR THE FOLLOWING:
Our college students Our congregation
Our nation, leaders and co-workers David and Leon in the Navy
Various friends, relatives and co-workers Yevette’s mother is still struggling
EVENTS:
Nov. 2 - Election Day
THEOLOGY, POLITICS, AND MEDICAL ETHICS
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Psalm 139:13-14).
David wrote those words some three thousand years ago, and they are borne out in today’s world. The human body is an amazing creation. It can endure a great deal of stress and recover from it. In the book, Ghost Soldiers, the author describes the treatment of U.S. soldiers captured in the Philippines. They were disease infested, lost weight, beaten, and starved, yet a couple of months after their rescue, their health had returned as well as their weight. When the book was published in 2002, some of these men were still alive and doing well. Several decades ago, surgeries that were done required weeks and months of recovery. Today it is a matter of a few days. A detached retina is done on an outpatient basis where four decades required a week’s stay in a hospital. David was right! Our bodies a “fearfully and wonderfully made.”
With such advances in medical science, many are looking for a cure for all types of diseases and injuries. Many of those diseases and injuries have famous spokes people to advocate research. The most famous would be Jerry Lewis and the Labor Day telethon for various muscular diseases. The late Christopher Reeve emphasized research in spinal injuries do to his own. Michael J. Fox advocates for Parkinson’s Disease. Ron Reagan, Jr. touted research for Alzheimer’s. All of this is fine. But then there is that problem with those pesky ethics. Add politics and we have all sorts of statements made. Stem cell research is one of those areas in which many things are said. In desperation for a cure, many advocate no standards to finding a cure. And it doesn’t take long for a politician desperate for election to jump on the band wagon and make some outlandish statements. One recent one was that if a certain politician is elected he would find a cure by using stem cell research. This man is not a doctor yet made such a statement. What are we to make of this?
You might ask why I bring this up? Two reasons. One, we might not be clear on what stem cell research is and need to understand it better. Two, when a politician makes an issue out of something like this, it becomes an assumption that Christians can no longer speak about it. Who then is stepping into whose realm? Is it the church interfering with the state or the state with the church? I realize that anyone can make anything an issue and tell others to stay out of it, so common sense should be used.
What is stem cell research? “According to Mayo hematologist C. Christopher Hook, stem cells – extraordinarily flexible – can be derived from six sources: umbilical cord blood, bone marrow, peripheral blood, the biopsy of specific organs, fetal tissue, and the human embryo” (Christianity Today, [CT] 10/04, p. 27). These are divided into two categories: adult and embryo research. The first four listed above are in the first category and there is no ethical problem with them. Most research in these areas are leading to promising results in some areas, one of which is Parkinson’s Disease, according to Dr. Charles Krauthammer, a columnist who is paralyzed (Anything To Get Elected, townhall.com). Another comes from John Hopkins University lab that converted bone-marrow stem cells from animal donors into healthy liver cells for humans. As for spinal injures and Alzheimer’s, no stem cell research as shown anything progress in these areas. In the second category are the fetal and embryonic stem cells. It is here that ethical concerns come into play. Fetal stem research is connected with abortion, and with that comes the issue of killing life for research. Embryonic stem cell research is different in that it involves taking DNA and implanting it in an egg, which is an embryo, “a fertilized egg up to eight weeks of development” (CT, p. 27). Is this life? That is the debate. What many do not say but what is fully admitted to by scientists is that this is human cloning.
I am all for research into finding cures for diseases and injuries but not at any cost. We must question the idea that to find a cure we must destroy human life. While some are desperate for such cures, a standard must be set. As David said above, God knitted us together in the womb. God told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…” (1:5). While this was spoken to Jeremiah that he would be a prophet, I believe that God has a plan for each of us. It is not that we might be famous or rich or a prophet. It might be simply to influence those, or one, in our little corner of the world. I realize that not all who advocate for cures, and those who research, believe in or fear God. Any maybe that is the problem. Scientists in the past have believed in God and went on to discover amazing things about creation. Today, some are putting all their trust in a scientific cure when they should be depending on God in order to live a glorious life (see Romans 8:28; 1 Corinthians 10:13). We are not unscientific because we want standards or restrictions on research. One only has to look at those who had no standards who used humans in all types of research in Nazi Germany and Communist Russia. Is that the direction we really want to head?
Enter the politician who makes a claim of finding a cure quickly with enough research money. This is offering false hope only for selfish means. By confusing the situation that all stem cell research is the same, it tugs at the heart for those who only listen and do little research, or who have friends and relatives with such diseases. False hope is dangerous. It is also unethical. That in and of itself questions the purpose of such statements.
As Christians, we want to keep in our prayers those who suffer with such diseases and for those who are seeking cures. One final question, who but God knows how many scientists have been aborted or destroyed in a dish who, if born, would have found the breakthrough research that would have led to a cure? Something to think about, isn’t it?
George B. Mearns