Bioethics Senior Scholar on Stem Cell Research, Cloning
Dr. John Kilner the senior scholar of The Centre for Bioethics Human Dignity and the Director of the Bioethics Program at Trinity International University, USA, spoke on 28th March about the ethical concerns of stem cell research.
by Christian Today
Posted: Tuesday, April 4, 2006, 17:34 (BST)
Trinity International University has one of the very few places in the world that developed entire degree programs that connect biblical faith to this whole set of bioethics issue. So people are getting both pastoral training and bioethics while other people can get full-blown bioethics degrees to provide the leadership in the church so that the church can really be an informed voice. We need people to not only be reacting and shouting but really be engaged in meaningful dialogue and discussion and debate.
Dr. Kilner helped in the founding of The Centre for Bioethics Human Dignity in 1994 and has since served as the Center’s President and CEO. He continues to hold the position of Senior Scholar. Kilner received his bachelor degree at Yale University and earned an M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwelll Theological Seminary. He also holds an A.M. and a Ph.D. “With Distinction” in religious ethics with an emphasis in bioethics from Harvard University. Prior to teaching at Trinity International University, he taught at The Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith, and Ethics, Northwestern University Medical School, Asbury Theological Seminary, and at University of Kentucky.
[Editor's Note: Michelle Vu reported on this article from Washington DC, USA]
Michelle Vu
Christian Today Correspondent
The comments below are readers' personal opinions and are in no way intended to reflect the editorial opinion of Christian Today.
Added: Wednesday, May 30, 2007, 22:37 (BST)
An interesting but predictable article on stem cell research. Understandably, the Roman Catholic Church's concern is that "embryonic" stem cells could be destroyed. That will not happen in this research. Firstly, we are not dealing with 13 year-olds in an unsupervised biology class vindictively destroying materials, but with the world's top scientists. Stem cells unsuitable for one procedure would be used for something else. The big issue here for the catholic leaders is one of when life actually begins. The position as decreed by Pope John Paul II in 2001 was that biological life began the moment the sperm mingled with the egg becuase that was the nano second of ensoulment (the immortal soul entering the new life). Yet embryonic stem cells have no central nervous system, brain, spine, organs or individuality. A cell newly fertilised has the potential to become ANY cell. It will multiply, grow, divide, mutate, even destroy itself in the process of its development. It is NOT a human being but has only the ability to become part of a process so long as it acts in concert with and interacts with the process that will form a human being. It has no personality. Indeed the cell has not determined if it will become an eye cell, a brain cell, a muscle cell, a heart cell and so on. But the church's dogma raises a number of important questions. 1) The cell may split 4/5 days after fertilisation to become twins. What happens to the soul? 2) Now that research shows that while urinating women pass proteins that coat cells, are we to make everyday bodily functions holy rituals? IVF is stem cell therapy and thousands of embryonic stem cells used in the procedure are discarded. Are beneficiaries of IVF sinners? Bone marrow replacement is stem cell replacement. Like Jehovah Witnesses, who denounce blood transfusions on moral grounds, Roman Catholics are free to refuse stem cell treatments if they involve embryos. It is disappointing that the erradication of devastating conditions like motor neurone disease/ALS is being hampered by backward thinking instead of being embraced as a turning point in world history. Social and medical policies should be governed by the good they will do, not based on whether a just fertilised cell has the same rights as the rest of us.
Kenny McGuigan, North Lanarkshire, Scotland
