Sacred Cells?: Why Christians Should Support Stem Cell Research
Sacred Cells?: Why Christians Should Support Stem Cell Research
Last Updated on Saturday, 31 July 2010 09:25 Written by Administrator Saturday, 31 July 2010 09:25
Sacred Cells?: Why Christians Should Support Stem Cell Research
Sacred Cells? tells the little-known story of Christian theologians who have been actively involved with leading scientists in the lab to determine the ethical implications of stem cell research. And contrary to popular expectation, these Christians have been courageously advocating in favor of research. Three of these dynamic theologians tell their story in this book, providing a brief history of stem cell science and outlining why people of faith can and should support research.
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Reviews by Winifred Flint for Sacred Cells?: Why Christians Should Support Stem Cell Research
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Three Christian scholars and veterans of Geron’s ethics advisory board guide us through the ethical minefield that is regenerative medicine. The Christian denominations represented include liberal and conservative sects: Church of the Nazarene, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, and United Church of Christ. All three authors have published widely in fields such as: genetic research and its implications, bioethics, justice, and interrelations among biology, theology and ethics. The connection to Geron is significant in that Geron is the leader in the field – having been the first company allowed by the FDA to use human embryonic stem cell based treatment in human trials. As of summer 2009 Geron is using the therapy to treat acute spinal cord injury.
The authors have devised three frameworks to help explain the range of opinions on regenerative medicine. They then examine what must be nearly every aspect of the subject through each framework. The result is an extremely well reasoned argument for the support of stem cell research
Vatican encyclicals are given extensive attention because it is the Catholics who have provided the most sophisticated and full moral constructs against much of regenerative medicine. The tone is always one of respect.
Outside of Christianity, Jewish and Islamic traditional and contemporary thought on this complicated subject are synthesized and mined for their contribution. One of the authors, Ted Peters, is uniquely qualified to speak to the Islamic viewpoint in that he has been a Research Presenter for the Islamic Organization of Medical Sciences.
One faith missing from the discussion is Confucianism. Given that it’s the dominant faith in South Korea – a country that has pushed for aggressive research in regenerative medicine and has admitted to massive ethical mistakes- its absence in the discussion of ethics is disappointing.
The audience should be familiar with details of embryology. Though it provides a primer at the beginning, it is not sufficient to navigate the follow discussion with full understanding.
In the last two chapters the authors give a synopsis of their personal ethics and subsequent belief in the validity of a positive Christian response to stem cell research. Readers may choose to read these first before jumping into the deep end at the beginning of the book.
There extensive end of chapter notes mainly citie primary sources. There is an index but no glossary.
While this book is scholarly in presentation and tone it is still recommended for public and church libraries as well academic libraries. The Christian argument for stem cell research is so lacking in any literature that this work is a welcome addition.
Reviews by Jacob T. Hornick for Sacred Cells?: Why Christians Should Support Stem Cell Research
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Good book. Just really started it. Using it for a paper and seems that there is very valuable information on the topic of morality and ethics in the field of stem cells and genetic science.