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What will Obama do Monday morning when he announces a lifting of the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research? He could add some conditions, which would perhaps mitigate some of the blow-back from the Christian (not Mormon–they hold that it’s not human until implantation) right, though I doubt it. Father Tom Reese, Jesuit and political scientist, has three specific and reasonable suggestions that he sets out at the WaPo “On Faith” site. The goal is to “limit–then end–embryonic stem cell study”:
1. Embryos for research cannot be bought and sold. Embryos should not be created for the sole purpose of research. They should only come from excess embryos produced at fertility clinics that are scheduled to be destroyed anyway.
2. Before using human embryonic stem cells, researchers should show that the research they are doing cannot be done with non-embryonic stem cells.
3. Research using embryonic stem cells should aim at advancing toward the goal of using only non-embryonic stem cells in regenerative medicine. In other words, once the process of developing adult stem cells for treatments has been shown to be safe and reliable, any research in embryonic stem cells should be able to move seamlessly into the use of adult stem cells leaving the ethical problems behind.
These rules will not satisfy those who find any use of embryos ethically objectionable, but it will indicate that the Obama administration is trying to find some middle ground that gives some respect to the many Americans who find such research repugnant. In short, if science shows a way out of this ethical dilemma, we should follow it.
Also at “On Faith,” the Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, a professor of theology at Chicago Theological Seminary and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, sets out the argument for embryonic stem cell research that sees it as a moral imperative to relieve suffering.
She ably recommends the use of embryos that are already fertilized and frozen but will expire if not used.
These embryos could be donated to medical research by willing couples for the good purpose of developing medical treatments for some of the world’s most devastating diseases. These insights from organ donation meet some, though not all, of the religious objections to embryonic stem cell research.
The Vatican said in December you can’t use such embryos, nor is it really possible to “adopt” them–which seems like a waste to some, a deliberate death sentence to others.
My money is on Thistlethwaite’s view prevailing with Obama.
posted March 8, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Gibson: “My money is on Thistlethwaite’s view prevailing with Obama.”
Duh, you think? The woman is a “senior fellow” with the Center for American Progress, a left-wing think tank headed by Obama adviser and former Clinton WH chief of staff John Podesta.
Please don’t pretend to us that there is any doubt or suspense in your mind on this. David, the readers of your blog are not as dumb as you think.
posted March 8, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I’m so glad Obama is lifting the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. 8 good years were wasted when “W” used his moral authority to stop research. Who knows what medical progress might have been made during those 8 wasted years?
The Vatican said not to use the embryonic stem cells…or let them be adopted? Good thing they aren’t running this country! Also good that “W” is no longer in office.
posted March 8, 2009 at 11:24 pm
As one who suffers from a serious disease oft cited as a potential beneficiary of embryonic stem cell reaearch I can unequivocally say “NO THANK YOU”.
Since other stem cells seem to be producing hopeful results without compromising ethics I don’t think this will be a great sacrifice on my part, either.
It isn’t long ago when even the most progressive among us would have concluded that using even “leftover” embryos for research was just twisted. No doubt Machiavelli would approve of the president’s expected move tomorrow.
It’s a brave new world.
posted March 9, 2009 at 12:20 am
http://www.szone.us/f20/rats-future-stem-cell-therapies-24429/
Rather than writing blank checks to scientists to uncover a ‘breakthrough’ in embryonic stemcell research, we could wait and see if animal ESC research bears any good fruit. Even private biotech firms aren’t willing to invest in these fruitless endeavors. In economic times like these, it seems very unwise in the least to be chasing fool’s gold and running state and national deficits without being able to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
posted March 9, 2009 at 12:43 am
“She ably recommends the use of embryos that are already fertilized and frozen but will expire if not used.
‘These embryos could be donated to medical research by willing couples for the good purpose of developing medical treatments for some of the world’s most devastating diseases.’”
Starting with the biological reality that a new human organism is created at the moment of conception, and that it exists, as we all once did, in its first developmental stage, we have before us a human life. Whether or not we wish to deny that new human organism its personhood status for whatever utilitarian purpose that suits us is central to this issue.
It is an altogether warped and twisted understanding of the role of parents that leads to the statement I quote above. Parents are not the owners of their children. Offspring are not chattel. Our offspring are separate human beings, at any developmental stage, entrusted to parents by God. The entire job of parenting from day one is oriented toward ultimately letting go of a fully formed and independent young adult some 18-20 years down the road. No parent has the right to donate their offspring for use in biomedical research.
This differs entirely from the principle of organ donation in that the organ donor yields their organs at the end of their life. What is being suggested here is the deliberate termination of life in order to harvest useful tissues. That’s not organ donation. That’s high tech cannibalism.
If we allow ourselves to do this with embryonic humans, then the day is not far distant when we will grow them further to harvest fully formed organs in fetal farming. Why let a perfectly good abortion go to waste?
http://www.ncbcenter.org/FrTad_MSOOB_11.asp
Thirty years ago with the birth of the first human using in vitro fertilization, the Catholic Bishops warned that the new technology would lead us down this road that we find ourselves on. People laughed at such ‘alarmism’. I believe that current events show their warning to have been prophetic instead.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta said it all:
“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”
posted March 9, 2009 at 5:16 am
I do not think Embryonic stem cell research is going to be very fruitful very soon if at all. I for one am not totally against basic research but with restrictions. Embryonic stem cells become every type of cell-tissue (as in a “whole” baby) meaning they produce tumors.
All this is an exercise in polemics and philosphy of life. Science is on the side of the religious.
posted March 9, 2009 at 10:41 am
And once again the Vatican says to science that it can’t do something and science answers, “Oh, really? Just watch.”
posted March 9, 2009 at 3:09 pm
I am aware that individual Mormons find themselves opposite sides of the debate over use of embryonic stem cells (I myself oppose their use), but I am not aware that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints taken any official position with respect to the moment life begins. The “implantation” specification is news to me.
For church-sanctioned statements on the subject of abortion search “abortion” at lds.org.
hthalljr’gmail’com
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