This last weekend, priests throughout the Archdiocese of St. Louis spoke simply and directly to their parish families about the truth of stem cell research. They also invited people to attend an educational presentation during Advent.
The subject is no longer a far away, theoretical concept but something that all Catholics need to understand. A group promising wonderful cures through embryonic stem cell research is circulating a petition — and using influential people in its advertising — to push for a state constitutional amendment vote next November [in the state of Missouri]. The proposed measure would prohibit any attempt to ban stem cell research involving the creation and destruction of embryos, a concept the Missouri Legislature discussed but could not agree on last session.
We are not going to call the people who are behind the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures evil. Many of them merely want what those who favor moral medical research do: cures.
But Catholics need to see beyond the coalition’s rhetoric and resist being led astray, as some of the coalition’s backers already have been. Catholics also need to realize that the Church supports moral medical research that could cure illness and help people live healthier, happier lives. The coalition’s arguments, helped by some reporting in the mainstream media, have already blurred the lines between morally acceptable research and the kind that is not. Some of rhetoric implies that those who oppose embryonic stem cell research also oppose all stem cell work.
Nothing could be more erroneous.
Many cures have been found over the past few years by using cell donations from people or from donations of cells from umbilical cord blood. The Review [the newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Louis] described one of these cures in a story on its front page recently, told the story of another cure through umbilical cord blood donations a few weeks ago and will continue to publish accounts of such cures. The Church blesses and encourages that kind of research.
What the Church condemns — and always will — is the creation of an embryo solely to extract cells for research and the subsequent destruction of that embryo afterward. Life cannot be created then destroyed, regardless of the outcome of such an experiment.
Thus far, no cures have come from embryonic stem cell research. However, a Catholic cannot merely use that as an argument in opposing such research, and we wish that several medical ethics leaders in the Church would stop using it. Give such research time and it will produce cures; but the procedure is immoral and can never be justified regardless of its outcome.
Period.
One does not have to be a medical expert to understand the basics of this argument. Using cells from existing life that will continue to live is moral; creating life only for an experiment is not.
Good people of all faiths need to avoid being diverted from the moral road by high-sounding promises. God has given medical science the opportunities it needs through a reuse of existing cells. But only He creates life, and we dare not try to duplicate that divine feat.
The subject is no longer a far away, theoretical concept but something that all Catholics need to understand. A group promising wonderful cures through embryonic stem cell research is circulating a petition — and using influential people in its advertising — to push for a state constitutional amendment vote next November [in the state of Missouri]. The proposed measure would prohibit any attempt to ban stem cell research involving the creation and destruction of embryos, a concept the Missouri Legislature discussed but could not agree on last session.
We are not going to call the people who are behind the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures evil. Many of them merely want what those who favor moral medical research do: cures.
But Catholics need to see beyond the coalition’s rhetoric and resist being led astray, as some of the coalition’s backers already have been. Catholics also need to realize that the Church supports moral medical research that could cure illness and help people live healthier, happier lives. The coalition’s arguments, helped by some reporting in the mainstream media, have already blurred the lines between morally acceptable research and the kind that is not. Some of rhetoric implies that those who oppose embryonic stem cell research also oppose all stem cell work.
Nothing could be more erroneous.
Many cures have been found over the past few years by using cell donations from people or from donations of cells from umbilical cord blood. The Review [the newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Louis] described one of these cures in a story on its front page recently, told the story of another cure through umbilical cord blood donations a few weeks ago and will continue to publish accounts of such cures. The Church blesses and encourages that kind of research.
What the Church condemns — and always will — is the creation of an embryo solely to extract cells for research and the subsequent destruction of that embryo afterward. Life cannot be created then destroyed, regardless of the outcome of such an experiment.
Thus far, no cures have come from embryonic stem cell research. However, a Catholic cannot merely use that as an argument in opposing such research, and we wish that several medical ethics leaders in the Church would stop using it. Give such research time and it will produce cures; but the procedure is immoral and can never be justified regardless of its outcome.
Period.
One does not have to be a medical expert to understand the basics of this argument. Using cells from existing life that will continue to live is moral; creating life only for an experiment is not.
Good people of all faiths need to avoid being diverted from the moral road by high-sounding promises. God has given medical science the opportunities it needs through a reuse of existing cells. But only He creates life, and we dare not try to duplicate that divine feat.
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