Yesterday newspaper headlines and reports on television and radio hailed a Canadian scientific breakthrough. It appears that it is possible to develop stem cells from skin cells, which can open the door to treatment of a number of debilitating diseases. We should be proud of Dr. Andras Nagy and his team from Mt Sinai hospital in Toronto.
The value of stem cells has been known for a while, but there has been an ethical road block. A principal source of these cells is human embryos, and various religious groups and ethicists have sounded the alarm about the development of embryos for the purpose of harvesting stem cells. The Roman Catholic church has been particularly vocal and has listed stem cell harvesting as one of the new Seven Deadly Sins. Obviously this recent scientific development would offer an option to the more contentious source of stem cells.
You may not lie awake at night fretting over these ethical issues, but it is a good thing someone is, or at least gives it a lot of thought during the day. Not long ago the United Church Observer did an article on bioethics and named several of Canada's foremost thinkers in this area. One was in my last congregation and another in the congregation before that. The person in Halifax was a mother of two small children and I didn't realize until my last year that the reason she wasn't in church from time to time was because she was invited to speak and attend conferences all over North America.
Shortly before I left Halifax we had coffee and she encouraged me to consider pursuing studies in this area because she felt that society was developing the technological skills far faster than our ability to ponder the moral and ethical issues. It seemed to be a daunting challenge, and I haven't taken it any further, but I think of her concern every time one of these issues emerges.
Faith isn't just "me and Jesus," even when the "biggies" seem overwhelming.
3 comments:
"society was developing the technological skills far faster than our ability to ponder the moral and ethical issues."
I have heard this before, and I heartily agree. Change is happening so quickly, technologically and in other ways, that it makes one's head spin.
I have learned to embrace change, but not all change is good, and sometimes we have to be express our stubbornness and refuse to change. For environmental reasons, I feel as if I am going back to traditional roots of composting, gardening, knitting, and hanging clothes to dry. It feels good to reject some of the new technology.
The novel My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piccolt comes to mind. It shows the best of intentions unraveling into a complicated and unprecedented family dysfunction. What's interesting about the book is that it is not science fiction. We've always had novels that explore what could happen if science is left to reign in place of religion, but this is more subtle and is reality based. What was moral and right has never been more complicated.
There is a strong biblical message of simplicity which we can embrace. The challenge is to discern what is helpful and what isn't. Many of us have benefitted from medical technology and in the West we live longer because of it. But as you suggest, not all things touted as advances actually enhance our quality of life.
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