ask that advocates not forget that the whole business is a money-making proposition, not just an issue of whether to destroy an eight-cell body to save a cancer sufferer. Money muddles morality.
Opponents note that there are preferable alternatives, including cord blood and stem cells from the patient’s own organs. Some research indicates that adult stem cells are more efficacious than embryonic stem cells and capable of finding damage and fixing it, whether brain damage or blindness or many other problems. Adult neural stem cells have become heart, muscle, blood, and liver cells. Bone marrow stem cells are repairing bone and cartilage in human clinical trials. There are many types of adult cells and there is no need to use embryonic stem cells that can become 200 types but do not migrate within the body as adult or cord blood cells seem to do. Even adult stem cells from the recently deceased have proven viable in some tests, with some predicting autologous pancreatic transplants, perhaps from cadaver ductal cells converted in culture to pancreatic islet cells. The website of the Do No Harm, Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics, is http://www.stemcellresearch.org.
In 2011, Ted Peters, Lutheran theologian and pastor, addressed the Christian Scholars Conference at Pepperdine University. Peters is on the Scientific and Medical Accountability Standards Working Group of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the Genetics Task Force of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. The goal of the conference was to improve relations between Christians and scientists. Peters is co-author of Sacred Cells? Why Christians Should Support Stem Cell Research. He says that Christians should respect all sides of the debate and understand the reasons to support the research. He noted that stem cell research has great potential to help people and does not dehumanize anyone. He draws a distinction between disaggregating the blastocyst, formed on the fifth day, before it becomes an embryo, and being baby killers. Stem cells are biological cells that divide through mitosis and differentiate and self-renew. Embryonic stem cells have normal cell function as well as an untapped potential to become any of hundreds of cell types.
Peters notes the internal Christian debate between the sanctity of human life and the imperative to alleviate suffering. He also notes that both sides are attempting as best they can within their perspective to do the right thing, whether it is protecting the embryos or finding more ways of regenerating healthy cells or saving lives. Christians should empathize even when they do not agree. Strong moral conviction does not require malice toward those with opposing views.
For the conservative Christian, there are no legitimate opposing views: God prohibits the destruction of a living human being, and no amount of societal or medical benefit can ever justify killing for spare parts. Not only is it unethical but it is also reprehensible morally. Adult stem cell research, because it does not involve loss of life, is morally acceptable. Otherwise, there is no middle ground, no place for empathy.
John H. Barnhill
Independent Scholar
See Also: Buddhism; Egg Donation, Ethics of; Judaism; Muslim.
Further Readings
Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity. An Overview of Stem Cell Research, Updated August 2009. http://cbhd.org/stem-cell-research/overview (Accessed April 2014).
Christian Research Institute. “Should Christians Support a Ban on Embryonic Stem Cell Research?” (2011). http://www.equip.org/bible_answers/should-christians-support-a-ban-on-embryonic-stem-cell-research (Accessed April 2014).
Hanegraaff, Hank. “Should Christians Support a Ban on Embryonic Stem Cell Research?” In The Complete Bible Answer Book—Collector’s Edition. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008.
Hodges, Mark. “Destructive Embryonic Stem Cell Research.” Orthodox Research Institute. http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/ethics/hodges_stem_cell_research.htm (Accessed April 2014).
Hodges, Mark. “Embryonic Stem Cell Research Kills.” Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese. http://www.antiochian.org/stem-cell-research (Accessed May 2014).
Houdmann, S. Michael. “What Should a Christian’s View Be on Stem Cell Research?” http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-stem-cell-research.html (Accessed April 2014)
Murashko, Alex. “Christian Scholar: Stem Cell Research Is Not ‘Baby Killing.’” Christian Post (June 21, 2011). http://www.christianpost.com/news/christian-scholar-stem-cell-research-is-not-baby-killing-51407 (Accessed May 2014).
PBS.org. “Religious Views on Stem Cell Research.” Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly (July 27, 2001). http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2001/07/27/july-27-2001-religious-views-on-stem-cell-research/15307 (Accessed May 2014).
Peters, Ted, Karen Lebacqz, and Gaymon Bennett. Sacred Cells?: Why Christians Should Support Stem Cell Research. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010.
Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, The
Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, The
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Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, The
The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation is a registered nonprofit organization dedicated to funding research on spinal cord injury and improving the quality of life for people living with paralysis. The roots of the organization can be traced to 1982 and the founding of the Stifel Paralysis Foundation, which later merged with the American Paralysis Association. In 1999, the older association merged with the Christopher Reeve Foundation, begun by actor Christopher Reeve after he was paralyzed from the neck down in a 1995 riding accident, and became known as the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, with Reeve as chairperson. The name was later changed to the Christopher Reeve Foundation, and in 2007, a year after the death of Dana Reeve, wife of Christopher Reeve, the name was changed to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. Between1982 and 2013, the Reeve Foundation awarded more than $110 million to researchers around the world working on treatments for acute and chronic spinal cord injury.
Putting a Face on Spinal Cord Injury
Born in New York City on September 25, 1952, Christopher Reeve was a little-known actor when he was chosen from over 200 actors to play the title role in the 1978 movie Superman. He reprised the role in two more films and became identified with the near-invulnerable superhero in the eyes of the American public. An athlete who performed his own stunts in the Superman movies, Reeve regularly competed in equestrian events. It was during such an event in Culpepper, Virginia, in May 1995 that he was thrown from his horse, fracturing the top two vertebrae in his neck and damaging his spinal cord.
The accident left Reeve a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic for the rest of his life, and it turned him into a fierce advocate who used his celebrity to raise awareness of the need to support research on spinal cord injury and to lobby Congress for better insurance protection against catastrophic injury and for embryonic stem cell research, which he believed held the best hope for a cure. Reeve appeared on television news magazines, at various public venues, and before congressional subcommittees, sharing his experience and addressing the need for research. His advocacy made him America’s most recognized