Stem Cell Research: Hype, Hope, or Both?
by Rob ChambersSince President Obama’s decision on March 9th to allow federal funds for research using embryos and embryonic stem cells, much has been said about the morality and ethics of embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) and adult stem cell research (ASCR).
Many scientists, researchers, activists, and legislators argue that stem cell research holds great promise to cure or treat health problems. This is partially true because when supporters of stem cell research make this claim the issue is often clouded and confused. This is because the moral and ethical dilemma that embryonic stem cell research kills human life is often intentionally left out of general conversation. The media and advocates frequently bury this dilemma under the words of hope, promise, and cures of stem cell research in general.
This is done because embryonic stem cells have not proven effective in treating ANY human injury, illness, or disease, but adult stem cells have. Given this, promoters of ESCR wrongfully infer that embryonic stem cells will be just as effective in cures and treatments as adult stem cells.
Such a sleight-of-the-hand is believed to be intentional in order to mislead and confuse the general public. The more the issue of destroying embryos for research can be cloaked under the general term of stem cell research the greater the chances of this moral problem flying under the general public’s radar.
But the general public has been misled/confused long enough on this issue that now, with President Obama’s recent Executive Order, taxpayer dollars are on the path to fund the killing of unborn life for embryonic stem cell research.
So what exactly is a stem cell? A human stem cell is a basic type of cell that can differentiate or turn into other types of cells. Stem cells can be found in either adults OR unborn embryos. (An embryo is a human being in early biological development.)
Embryonic stem cell research first involves killing the embryo and then harvesting the embryonic stem cells for research. Scientific study on embryonic stem cells has provided NO successful treatments or cures.
Adult stem cell research, on the other hand, has proven effective for treating several health conditions like: leukemia, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, rheumatoid arthritis, and breast cancer. Unlike embryonic stem cell research that kills life, adult stem cell research causes no harm to the adult. Adult stem cells can come from tissue cells from an adult’s brain, bone marrow, pancreas, heart, placenta, and umbilical cord.
Researchers have made significant scientific advances with adult stem cells in the last several years. As recent as this month, “Canadian researchers have discovered a new way to turn skin cells into stem cells with fewer potential risks to patients.” Using the patient’s own adult stem cells reduces the risk of tissue rejection as in the case with organ donation.
The problem our nation is facing is the continued degradation of the value of human life. History teaches us what happens when some humans are considered more valuable than others. Slavery in the U.S. was justified because Africans were considered to be sub-human. Hitler placed Jews in the same type of category. Now our President, legislators, and other advocates consider human embryos to be sub-human or not persons.
An argument ESCR advocates use to justify killing human embryos is to assume embryos are humans but not persons. Advocates for ESCR claim that there is a distinction between what it means to be human and what it means to be a person. For a human to be a person they say certain criteria must be met.
Supporters of ESCR claim there are “necessary conditions” for personhood that must be met before taking an embryo’s life becomes a moral issue. These conditions vary but include the capability to respond to stimuli (light, pain, etc.), and the capacity to reason and be self-aware. Since it cannot be “proven” that an embryo cannot respond to stimuli or reason, then ESCR advocates claim the destruction of a human embryo is not a moral issue.
The personhood argument was, in part, invented to justify the means of using embryonic stem cells to reach the end of biotech firms developing patented cures for financial gain in the name of health and medicine.
Where will this human/person argument take us? The probable direction of science and medicine will be cloning to harvest body parts, and reduced health care resources for the infirm like Alzheimer’s patients.
God has called Christians to stand up for the defenseless – both young and old. Let us engage the culture with truth and stand up against this moral atrocity. Let your faith be proven as James tells us, “faith without works is dead.”