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The
moral and immoral side of stem-cell research
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
Embryonic stem-cell research is gaining momentum. President Bush
recently vetoed legislation to expand federally funded embryonic
stem-cell research. Even as people take sides on this issue, polling
data indicates the public is uninformed when it comes to stem-cell
research. I find myself wondering how informed the legislators who are
being pressured to provide funding for research are as well.
The Catholic Church does not oppose stem-cell research, but it
approaches that research from a moral perspective.
Stem-cell research falls into two basic forms, one of which involves the
destruction of human life and the other which respects the sanctity of
life.
Stem cells are primitive human cells that, when they divide, can form a
variety of more specialized cells. Human stem cells hold great promise,
we are told, for the development of therapies to regenerate damaged
organs, and to heal people who are suffering from terrible diseases.
Most scientific research uses cells obtained from adult tissue, blood
from umbilical cords and other sources. This poses no moral problem.
Versatile stem cells have been found in bone marrow, blood, muscle, fat,
nerves, amniotic fluid, and even in the pulp of baby teeth. Successful
therapies have been developed using these adult stem cells.
The Catholic Church applauds the vast array of scientific research that
is conducted ethically and respects the dignity of the human person.
Catholics, with a clear conscience, can and should support this kind of
stem-cell research, that is, research using adult and umbilical cord
stem cells.
The hype, however, has been focused on something very different. It’s
called embryonic stem-cell research. These are stem cells obtained by
killing human embryos when they are about one week old.
Embryos can be obtained from one of two sources: in vitro fertilization
or human cloning.
The first involves harvesting cells from human embryos produced in a
laboratory by in vitro fertilization. The embryos obtained through this
process are frozen and stored for future use. Not all of them are used,
however. That is a major justification many point to in their argument
for embryonic stem-cell research. They are discarded, wasted. The
mindset is to use those unwanted embryos for the benefit of suffering
humanity. But that is morally unacceptable because harvesting those
cells destroys the living embryo.
The argument that people suffering from debilitating and terminal
diseases should not be denied research utilizing the use of embryos that
no longer are needed or wanted for in vitro fertilization is presented
in an emotional context and may be persuasive to some. That
notwithstanding, it is flawed. A death row prisoner, a terminally ill
patient, every living person will die eventually, but that does not
entitle another to terminate human life for the purposes of scientific
experimentation. Human life is human life, no matter how small.
There are those, too, who insist that there is no moral problem with
harvesting cells from embryos because they claim that the embryo is not
actually human. It is just matter, smaller than the period at the end of
this sentence. It only holds the potential for human life, they argue.
But the human embryo is not something other than human. Human cells can
only be harvested from a human being. The point is this human being is
killed instead of allowing it to develop normally.
Human cloning is the other source of embryos. Scientifically it is known
as somatic cell nuclear transfer, the process used to create Dolly, the
sheep. The resulting human embryo in this process would be allowed to
grow for several days and then be destroyed to obtain stem cells for
experimentation. This is less an issue at the present time given the
fact that after many years of experimentation worldwide all attempts to
use human cloning for either therapeutic or reproductive purposes have
failed. Publicity to the contrary has proven to be unfounded.
Regardless of whether the human embryo comes from in vitro fertilization
or human cloning, human life is destroyed for the sake of scientific
research for what as yet are purely hypothetical medical therapies. This
is a crime against life. It is never morally permissible to destroy
human life, even if this is done in the hope of benefiting other human
beings. Laws intended to sanction embryonic stem-cell research are
immoral because they give legal protection to the violation of the most
fundamental of all human rights. Moreover, to date embryonic stem-cell
research, unlike adult stem-cell research, has failed to produce a
single therapeutic success.
Each one of us was once an embryo. This affirmation is based on a clear
grasp of the most basic biology, not on religious faith. Once human life
begins (which always occurs at fertilization or in an event that mimics
fertilization, like cloning), this new living being is a member of the
human race and is worthy of respect and protection from harm threatened
by embryonic stem-cell research.
It is interesting that the major pharmaceutical companies do not seem to
be rushing to invest in embryonic stem-cell research. Rather, those who
are pushing this immoral form of research look to the federal government
for funding. The potential for huge profits is not insignificant. No
doubt that is a major reason proponents approach the table with an army
of lobbyists and attempt to manipulate public opinion by appealing to
tragic stories of human suffering from a variety of diseases. Precious
little attention is given to adult stem-cell research.
Adult stem-cell research shows signs of success. Embryonic stem-cell
research, to date, has not. Embryonic stem-cell research shuffles aside
the sanctity of human life. Adult stem-cell research respects that
sanctity. |
