Question Thinking People Ask

From LifeDate - Winter 2004.

The Question Thinking People Ask

by Rev. Dr. James I. Lamb, Executive Director - Lutherans For Life

Someone almost always asks the question. The most recent was a high school freshman at St. Paul Lutheran High School in Concordia, MO. “If we are successfully treating diseases with adult stem cells and there is no success at all with embryonic stem cells, then why is there such a push for embryonic stem cell research?” It is a good logical question, a question thinking people ask.

Thinking people ask it because the evidence is so overwhelming. The last time I checked the score it was 56-0. We are treating 56 diseases in humans with adult stem cells. (You can check out the exciting successes with adult stem cells at www.stemcellresearch.org.) We are treating 0 diseases in human beings with embryonic stem cells. From what I read, it also seems clear that cures from embryonic stem cells are not “just around the corner” and people in wheelchairs are not going to be walking around anytime soon because of embryonic stem cell research (ESCR). Dr. David Prentice Professor of Life Sciences at Indiana State University, and Adjunct Professor of Medical and Molecular Genetics for Indiana University School of Medicine, summarizes a paper he wrote on this subject as follows.

In summary, our current knowledge regarding adult stem cells has expanded greatly over what was known just a few short years ago. Results from both animal studies and early human clinical trials indicate that they have significant capabilities for growth, repair, and regeneration of damaged cells and tissues in the body, akin to a built-in repair kit or maintenance crew that only needs activation and stimulation to accomplish repair of damage. The potential of adult stem cells to impact medicine in this respect is enormous.

So, thinking people are asking, “What’s the big deal with embryonic stem cell research?” Since I get asked that question frequently, when I had opportunity recently, I asked Dr. Prentice that question. His answer was basically the same as I had been giving. He was just more articulate. Here is a summary of the three main reasons for pushing ESCR:

Currently at least, ESCR is where the money is. This will increase if more states pass legislation like California’s Proposition 71 allocating large amounts of state revenues for cloning and ESCR.
The “Publish or Perish” syndrome among researchers keeps ESCR going. Everyone wants to publish in this area. ESCR is where the research began. The versatility of adult stem cells is a more recent development. Researchers are still “locked in” to the initial research model.
The “abortion mindset” flavors this discussion in two ways. First, if it is admitted that somehow it is not morally acceptable to do research by destroying human beings at 5 days old, then what would that say about the morality of destroying human beings at 12 weeks or 30 weeks old through abortion? Second, the “flip side” of this is that ESCR claims to bring some good from a bad situation. Embryos frozen in fertility clinics can at least be used for research the argument goes. It is the same argument used to justify harvesting fetal tissue from aborted babies.

I am glad thinking people are asking this question. We need to continue to educate God’s people on the issue of stem cell research so that more questions will be asked and God-pleasing answers will be given.