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A Human Is A
Terrible Thing To Waste
We are fighting a great and terrible
war to preserve the sanctity and dignity of human life. However,
it sometimes seems that getting our national leaders to understand
this war is like taking a number of elementary school children
from the playground and putting them in a nuclear submarine in
defense of the United States. Many of our elected officials claim
to be pro-life and against abortion. If I understand the polls
correctly, the majority of our leaders echo the majority opinion
of people in the United States. They indicate that they hate abortion,
do not believe that it is right (or at least, that it is not “good”)
and would never consider it as an option for themselves or their
own families. However, many of these would stipulate that they
would never tell someone else what to do. Such statements are
meant to “muddy the waters” or skew the line between
the camps. Sentiments like these force us to remind ourselves
that those who believe abortion is wrong for themselves but believe
others should have the right to an abortion if they want it, are
pro-choice. They are no more pro-life than those who don’t
believe abortion is wrong at all. Those of us who believe in the
sanctity of human life are desperate to find and support any and
all national leaders who will take a stand against any form of
degradation against the human being. We are most grateful for
those who will consistently abide by such standards. However,
it seems that for some of our leaders, human dignity may be no
more than politics as usual. I would make an example, of course,
of recent statements about stem cell research made by Senator
Bill Frist.
On July 29 of this year, Senator
Frist made an announcement that he will endorse a new bill under
consideration in the Senate, which will provide funding for a
specific type of embryonic stem cell research. This endorsement
frustrated many people who wish to preserve the dignity of life.
Despite his continued insistence that he is pro-life, Frist backed
down from his earlier position against federal funding for embryonic
stem-cell research. Frist had previously agreed with President
Bush in standing against the use of federal monies for financing
research in which embryos were destroyed for the purpose of performing
stem cell research. Although researchers have been pushing for
this money for years, the President would only permit funding
for research using the approximately 60 embryonic stem cell lines
already in existence. Bush reasoned that since those human lives
were already destroyed and the stem cell lines were already in
existence that such funding could be justified. Even this decision
was disappointing to pro-lifers in view of the indignity of making
use of human embryos which had already been murdered. However,
he staunchly resisted allowing funding for research in which new
stem cell lines would be created, in other words, where more human
embryos would be destroyed. Senator Frist stood by the President’s
decision and did not indicate any disagreement with that policy,
until now.
Dr. Frist was careful to explain
his new position, which he feels is consistent with his pro-life
stance. He was hasty to explain that he is not now endorsing the
direct harvesting of human embryos for stem cell research. However,
in endorsing the new bill under consideration, he is recommending
the funding of embryonic stem cell research using “discarded”
embryos from in-vitro fertilization clinics. Many people contract
for the services of fertilization clinics when they are having
trouble with normal means of conception. In such facilities, reproductive
cells from men and women are harvested and fertilized for the
purpose of planting a tiny embryo in a mother’s womb. Since
the failure rate of the implantation is so high, many cells must
be fertilized and tiny embryos created in mass and then frozen.
When one of the embryos has successfully survived in the mother’s
womb and a baby is born, the couple may indicate they have no
more desires for another baby, and the left over frozen embryos
may then be discarded. Senator Frist explains that he has no desire
to encourage the direct harvesting of embryos which might otherwise
become living human beings, but only to use those embryos which
would be destroyed anyway. In effect he is saying, “Let’s
not waste those human embryos which will die anyway.”
Before discussing the ethics of
the senate majority leader’s new position, it would be enlightening
to discuss the medical work regarding stem cells. There are two
types of stem cell research: adult stem cell research and embryonic
stem cell research. Stem cells are those formational cells from
which the body builds itself. Unlike embryonic stem cells, adult
stem cells develop from bodily organs in a mature individual,
and do not require the destruction of an embryo. Every organ in
the human body has stem cells that specialize in multiplying to
produce cells of that particular organ. For example, bone stem
cells can specialize into bone cells and muscle stem cells produce
muscle tissue. Many of these particular stem cells from adults
can be used and have been used with great success in medical research.
Also, there has been a great deal of success with the use of the
placenta, the umbilical cord, and cord blood in stem cell research.
It is important to note that the successes resulting from the
studies of adult stem cells have furnished concrete breakthroughs
in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, and several
other major diseases. On the other hand, embryonic stem cell research,
which is not possible except by the death of an embryo, has led
to no medical breakthroughs at all. While many researchers have
touted embryonic stem cell research as showing great promise,
it has yet to bring about a single medical breakthrough. Because
embryonic stem cell research has shown so little promise, private
companies have generally refused to fund its research. On the
other hand, private companies have contributed much toward research
with adult stem cells. This lack of funding is precisely the reason
that embryonic stem cell researchers are crying for federal funding,
since private investment refuses to back research that has yet
demonstrated so little success. If private companies refuse to
fund something because it shows so little proof of success, why
should my tax dollars be used to fund it?
I must admit that I have grave
difficulty with Dr. Frist’s new position. Even if embryonic
stem cell research were as promising, or even more promising than
adult stem cell research, how can we justify the sacrifice of
a single human embryo, in other words, a single human life, for
that purpose? The argument that the frozen embryos will be discarded
anyway falls apart. What is the difference between discarded frozen
embryos from a fertilization clinic, and discarded babies, or
parts of babies, behind an abortion clinic? It doesn’t matter
if that tiny human being is alive, or dead, or frozen, it is just
as evil to murder a human being to use its parts when that human
is already slated for murder, as it is to murder a human being
period.
We live today in a society that
has largely lost their understanding and even their belief in
the human soul. We Americans may largely claim to believe in God,
but our entire view of life, our planning, and our organization
and structure as a society would make the existence of God a non-issue.
For this reason, the human being is generally regarded no differently
than an animal or even a high-school science experiment. If, as
a nation, we don’t regain the sense promoted in the scripture
that “…God created man in his own image, in the image
of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
(Genesis 1:27) we will certainly lose the dignity of the human
being. Such dignity will truly be a terrible thing to waste.
James Sanders
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Decaturville
August 9, 2005
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