NEW IDEAS AND SCIENCE / MODULE 5 / SECTION 1
STEM CELL RESEARCH
One of the major
scientific areas of discussion and debate today is in the area of
stem cell research. Both the philosophy and the morality of this area
of research and practice are "red zones" in political,
medical, scientific, and religious environments. The reason for the
debate being that researchers and medical specialists are more in
favor of using stem cells from embryos.
Stem cells are
launching a whole new universe of medicine, curing deadly diseases
with the promise of custom-made tissues and organs. There are two
main sources of stem cells:
Embryonic stem cells
Adult stem cells
We will discuss these sources later. The key
"hot button" for evangelical Christians is the use of
embryonic stem cells: those extracted from embryos. Most Christians,
including many scientists and medical doctors, believe that life
begins at conception when the sperm from the male fertilizes the egg
of the female. Many stem cells are taken from an aborted fetus, which
immediately incites reaction from anti-abortionists, who are against
any research that results in embryos being destroyed.
Anti-abortionists and those on the political right (most
evangelical Christians) claim that the fetus, the embryo, and a baby
should be protected: that time is the only difference in their
development. This causes a political backwash, thereby putting
pressure on politicians who want to please Christians so they can get
their vote. It also puts pressure on the medical and scientific
research community because of the debate over ethics, morality, and
the philosophy of life.
Let us examine briefly the thought
basis of most non-Christians concerning the nature of the child in
the womb of its mother. Their belief system about the origin of life
is usually derived from one of the following:
The theory of evolution;
What they know others believe;
Philosophical and historical development.
Let's discuss the
third one above, because it has influenced thought over the last
2,000 years. The philosopher Aristotle believed that life evolved
through three (3) stages: vegetative; animate, and intellectual. Even
though he was probably talking about the emergence of entire
populations, people began to believe that the human embryo traveled
this course as well. The embryo, immediately after conception, being
the vegetative stage; then, the animate stage where the muscles and
limbs begin to grow and move . . . and finally the intellectual.
People began to relegate the first two stages to the womb, with the
final stage after the birth. So, many people in their minds do not
feel that the embryo becomes human until after birth.
Science,
however, proves that life begins at conception. When the male
spermatozoa races to fertilize the egg in the mother's womb, and
collides with the egg, the result is conception. At conception, DNA
and all programming, including the blood type and genome
characteristics are included in the package. This is why different
scriptures refer to God's acknowledgment of a particular, unique life
in a mother's womb having a given name and a given destiny to
perform.
Examples of uniqueness of life are found in Jeremiah
Chapter One, Isaiah Chapter Nine, and Isaiah Chapter 44:28 and
45:1-3. To say that some embryos have this quality of uniqueness of
life and some do not have is foolishness and not scientifically
sound. The fact that some of these were prophesied ahead of time show
that they were to be lives: human lives. If they weren't human life
BEFORE exiting the womb, and IF that embryo or fetus were removed
before birth, they would NEVER have been born . . . and neither would
you have been born from your birth mother if your embryo or fetus had
been removed.
The purpose of this study is to acquaint the
Christian leader with the forefront of medicine in the area of stem
cell research, and to provide a framework for the following:
Knowledge to draw on when teaching others;
Ability to communicate with others knowledgeable in this field;
Information to make a scriptural decision as to the ethics involved.
It is easy to condemn a practice when one knows
nothing about it simply by quoting a few verses from the Bible;
however, we must be honest scholars and ministers, which requires
that we know something about the field with which we are concerned.
Also, it helps our credibility with the scientific and educational
community. And, thirdly, it gives us options to maybe advocate the
use of something that may be very helpful to humanity by recommending
guidelines of operation.
My purpose in teaching this subject
is not to force you into a dogmatic position concerning stem cell
research . . . remember, this is "The University of Excellence"
. . . but to give you insight and information from which to formulate
your own ethical conclusion, and possibly to enrich and augment this
particular area of science and medicine.
It's worthy to note
that hospitals and humanitarian relief agencies were not in any kind
of abundance until after Christianity was embedded into society.
Jesus came to bring wholeness to people: He never refused healing to
anyone.
"How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy
Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that
were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him." [Acts
10:38]
No matter what our individual gifts and skills are in
the Body of Christ, we are all to be ministers of healing. With that
in mind, let us embark on the study of stem cell research.
As
mentioned above, there are two main sources of stem cells:
Embryonic stem cells, and
Adult stem cells
Also,
embryonic stem cells can be harvested, or plucked, from two
sources:
In vitro fertilization
Nuclear transfer
In vitro fertilization (the origin of the name is
derived from Latin, meaning "in glass") is the
fertilization of an egg through a biological process taking place in
a test tube, a culture dish, or elsewhere outside a living organism.
That is, other than through sexual intercourse directly between a man
and a woman.
Nuclear transfer (or, therapeutic cloning) is
when a nucleus of a certain type of cell is inserted into an egg
whose nucleus has been removed.
Scientists can use either of
the two methods above for providing embryos; then, after five days,
transfer the embryo's inner cell mass, comprising around 40 stem
cells, to a laboratory dish. (Note: A five-day-old embryo is smaller
than the period at the end of this sentence.) After many months of
re-plating and transfer these cells have grown into millions of
healthy cells.
The idea underpinning this medical revolution
is to use the stem cells to repair sick organs and tissues. This
would eliminate such things as the use of bone joints being replaced
surgically with metal joints and pumps being used for insulin. The
cells in a young human embryo transform into 200 or so different
kinds of cells that make up the human body.