The Stem Cell Debate in the Christian Tradition - Essay Example

? Theology The Christian Tradition The field of medical science has traveled a long progressive way in developingprevention and control of some chronic diseases. Scientists’ remarkable efforts in developing advanced medical procedures, effective drugs and innovative medical equipment that largely contribute in increase of life longevity are highly commendable. Their noble ongoing search of finding cures to major illnesses is considered amazingly successful. In recent years, regenerative medicine has been developed and considered to be a spawn of medical revolution. Impressive results using adult stem cell therapy were reported in some scientific journals. Such worldwide reports as noted by Dr. Amin Abboud are: In Dusselford, in July 2001, German doctors reported that a patient’s own bone marrow adult stem cells were used to regenerate tissue damaged by a heart attack, improving his heart function. US doctors have taken adult stem cells from the brain of a patient with Parkinson’s disease and reimplanted them resulting in an 83% improvement in the patient. Washington Medical Centre treated 26 patients with rapidly deteriorating multiple sclerosis, twenty patients stabilized and six improved. Israeli doctors inserted adult blood stem cells into a paraplegic woman’s spinal cord. She regained bladder control and the ability to wiggle her toes and mover her legs. Surgeons in Taiwan have restored vision to a patient with severe eye damage using stem cells from the patient’s own eyes (2). However, with their highly optimistic battle to fight diseases, developing wise and ethically sound decisions in the field of medical science is very challenging especially in the midst of increasingly complex technology. While adult stem cells therapy has proven to be effective in treating diseases, medical scientists’ ongoing research of developing new field of regenerative medicine through pursuing other ways of harvesting stem cells resulted to formation of the new avenue called “Embryonic Stem Cell”. This recent development has stirred considerable controversies. But why this becomes so controversial? Stem cell research has shown great promising treatment in some devastating diseases. Taking a closer look at the different kinds of stem cells and defining how they are derived will help us understand why this subject is so controversial. As reported by the National Institutes of Health in the United States (NIH), adult stem cell is an undifferentiated cell found among differentiated cells in a tissue or organ such as bone marrow, blood and blood vessels, brain, skeletal muscle, skin, heart, teeth, liver, and others. It has the ability to renew itself and can differentiate into tissues to generate some or all of the other major specialized cell types of the tissue or organ other than those from which they came. So, the main roles of adult stem cells in human body are to maintain and repair the tissue of which they are found. Actually, doctors have been using stem cells to treat certain blood disorders which involved transplantation of bone marrow, which is rich in blood-forming stem cells (Homepage chap 4). Thus, adult stem cells are obtained from living humans, either adults or children, wherein the process of extraction is not harmful. Stem cells are being taken from their bone marrow, blood and blood vessels, skin, spinal cord, brain tissue and also from umbilical-cord blood and the placenta after the birth of a child. Additionally, NIH explained that adult stem cells isolated from blood and bone marrow are called hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), which have the ability to continually self-renew that made them responsible for production of billions of new blood cells each day. Since scientists have developed sufficient knowledge for using them as a therapy, doctors are routinely using hematopoietic stem cell transplants in treating cancer patients and other diseases related to blood and immune systems (chap 5). NIH additionally noted that normally amount of stem cells in each tissue is relatively low and once removed from the human body, their capacity to renew and divide slowed down thereby making production of large amount of stem cells difficult. So, in order to generate large quantities of adult stem cells, some scientists tried culturing the cell in laboratories and thereby trying to manipulate them into specific cell types that can be used to treat certain disease (chap 4). Possibly, with this limitation alongside with scientists’ earnest desire of developing more stem cells for treatment of major diseases, by using cell culture, they tend to formulate the “Embryonic stem cells”. From the name itself, stem cells being derived from embryos, the process gives the idea as being unethical and morally disgraceful. NIH clarified that embryonic stem cells are not derived from fertilized eggs taken from woman’s womb. Rather, they are stem cells being extracted from fertilized eggs from vitro fertilization clinics, where women have provided eggs for in vitro fertilization. With their consent, excess embryos that they submitted are being donated for research purposes (chap 3). These leftover fertilized eggs are being frozen then thawed to divide or separate into its component parts. Soon after fertilization of an egg, it begins to divide. About five to seven days of cell division, the cells developed have not yet begun to specialize into specific cell types thus designated as stem cells. Since these cells are undifferentiated, scientists will generate unlimited number of these cells by placing them in cell cultures where they can multiply. Once they grow in colonies, scientists will then program the cells to become their desired specified cells that can finally develop into tissue that will be needed for possible tissue replacement (Abboud 1). So, embryonic stem cells are seen to be as potential source of unlimited kinds of tissues that may serve as spare parts of defective organs. In an illustrative sense, embryonic stem cell can be likened to a lump of soft clay that can be fashioned by a skilled craftsman into any shape he wishes to make. It is such an amazing technique for a very tiny embryo to be converted to useful spare parts. What a remarkable development! However, consider what happened to the newly fertilized egg. Definitely, the main focus of concern in the process of extracting embryonic stem cells is basically destroying the embryo. Simply put, the process kills the embryos, depriving the human embryo to develop into a complete human being. Why intelligent scientists seemingly insensitive to this aftermath? Maybe they consider life’s existence at the time of birth rather than moment of conception? Or maybe they consider embryo as nonexistent life since it is not formed in the human womb? Yet, to those who strongly believe that life of a human being starts at the time of conception, they firmly consider that embryonic stem cells procedure is a crime that violates the sanctity of human life. Certainly, it defies the tenets prohibiting destruction of human life. For this matter, stem cell therapy procedure has become controversial. In fact, the issue has become so hot resulting into various debates between innovative scientists and concerned moralists, as well as religious devotees. However, not all scientists are affirming to embryonic stem cells procedure. There are also known scientists that are formerly atheists but become God-believers who upholds the sanctity of life by rejecting the ideas of embryonic stem cells research. Abortion is clearly identified as intentional murder. Destroying an embryo is likewise an act of murder then. In fact, the holy Christian bible helps us to attain proper view with this complex issue by revealing God’s view of the unborn. In the ancient nation of Israel, once a pregnant woman was injured by another person, even it was an accident, and either she or her unborn child died as a result of the incident, God viewed the person responsibly as a manslayer. Exacting his moral law the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures states: And in case men should struggle with each other and they really hurt a pregnant woman and her children do come out but no fatal accident occurs, he is to have damages imposed upon him without fail according to what the owner of the woman may lay upon him; and he must give it through the justices. But if a fatal accident should occur, then you must give soul for soul (Exodus 21: 22, 23). By this principle we can clearly perceive God’s view on unborn child or embryo. Hence, all human life, which includes fetus or embryo, is sacred in the eyes of God being our Creator. In fact a certain verse in the bible expresses God’s personal interest on each of us individually, as it says: Your eyes saw even the embryo of me, and in your book all its parts were down in writing (Psalm 139:16). This verse shows that God’s interest on every human begins while inside the womb. Therefore, the life of a fetus or embryo is clearly considered sacred in the eyes of God. This gives us the clear impression that embryonic stem cell research procedure is undeniably unethical and immoral the since it is against God’s will. There is an old saying that ‘ends cannot justify the means’. No matter how noble the intention of developing such embryonic stem cells procedure is, such is an illegal and immoral act and against God’s view of sanctity of life. It is never ethical to mark people for death in order to conduct experiments and research on their body parts even for a noble reason of saving other lives. According to the bible, since God is the Creator, the source of life, He is the only one who is being capable to save human from sickness and death. He provided it through Jesus sacrificial death. Yes, it is Jesus’ death that has the power to save lives from sickness and death. Therefore, promoting human intelligence because of its noble purpose but morally reprehensible is against Christian norms. Clearly, it is morally unethical to promote embryonic stem cells research procedures even it will be proven effective by their further experimentations. As true Christians we must not promote any procedures even beneficial if it’s against God’s will. We must trust God alone not in the nobles of this present scientific world. Although we are benefited by scientific innovative inventions especially in the field of medicines, but if their inventions have clear unethical implications and clearly violates Christian norms, we rather prefer to abide the old procedures and be considered conservative rather than do things against God’s will. We must believe in God alone rather than nobles, for even the most capable human cannot prevent himself from aging, getting sick, and eventually die. Only God can do it for us. Work cited Abboud, Amin. The Stem Cell Debate. Australian Bioethics Information. Web. 26 April 2013. http://www.australasianbioethics.org/Media/stemcells-3.pdf “Stem Cell Information.” National Institutes of Health. Web. 27 April 2013. http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/basics/pages/basics4.aspx New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. New World translation Committee. Watchtower Tract and Bible Society. Pennsylvania, USA. 1984 Read More