'New' Embryonic Stem Cell Method Might Split Supporters?
Not For The Catholics
A report in MSN Slate Magazine ( http://slate.msn.com/id/2
128276/ ) announced that some recent experiments gave
scientists the ability to extract embryonic stem cells without
killing the embryo. It then posed the question " Has the report
changed any minds".
For non-Christians, it might. But the Christian objection to
embryonic stem cell research isn't entirely based on the right
to life issue. And it's not (as many people presume) based on
the objection to 'fiddling with the power of God'. There's a
much deeper stance behind it.
For a Christian, the rules and creeds we follow aren't just a
standard list of do's and don'ts. They're a way of life, and
sometimes new technologies present undefined theological
questions. The Christian reacts to this from a gut instinct
because the real Christian doesn't need a list to understand
that something is wrong.
For example, the evil of abortion is obvious because it
violates the sanctity of life ...but the whole question of
abortion isn't just one of murder. And taking away the label
'murder' doesn't make it any more acceptable to the real
Christian. Because abortions is more than murder. It's a person
running from responsibility. It's a person enjoying pleasure
without accepting the natural result. It's a person hiding from
some kind of violent or painful event. It's a person not
accepting a gift from God.
I could go on, and abortion is always one or all of these. So
even if the embryo were not a living soul, abortion would still
be labeled as 'sin' by healthy Christians. And so is embryonic
stem cell research.
More than questioning whether or not a scientist could extract
stem cells and keep an embryo alive, someone might ask how many
embryos the scientist murdered while trying. Or perhaps how much
danger the embryo is in during the process. Or even why
scientists insist on creating embryos for the purpose of testing
at all. God gave us a perfectly natural way to produce new
life. On top of that, He made it enjoyable.
So man started by keeping the conceptions from interfering with
the pleasure. And now we're trying to keep the pleasure from
interfering with the conceptions. In this process, God's entire
plan was lost.
Catholics don't just object because it's unnatural. Catholics
object because it's not practical. Our understanding of science
and medicine isn't simply one of discovery, but one of
solutions. We see it as a way to increase the quality of life.
But this isn't so with modern science. Where as a certain number
of embryos die because of miscarriage, now millions die because
of in-vitro fertilization. And where scientists were once
limited by what was moral, they're now limited by a lack of
direction.