Virginia Postrel writes about the uses of stem cells to heal the sick:
Dynamist Weblog: Here's a cool local story on using stem cells from umbilical cord blood to save the life of a kid with a rare genetic defect:
"Corben has a very rare genetic disease that we call Wiskott Aldrich syndrome," pediatric hematologist Dr. Carl Lenarsky said. The deadly disease only strikes baby boys, and only affects three of every one million births.
"Most children with Wiskott Aldrich die before they're teenagers," pediatric hematologist Dr. Stanton Goldman said. Victims die from either bleeding or infection.
After the diagnosis, the Campbells prepared for the worst. "My husband thought we were going to pick out a casket," Holly Campbell said. "We were scared."
However, doctors offered some hope in the form of a cord blood transplant. "Corben's body is fine, except for his blood cells, so what we need to do is give him a new way of forming blood cells," Lenarsky said.... For a week, Corben received chemotherapy to destroy all the bad cells in his body, which created empty space inside his bone marrow. During chemo, Corben lost hair, and became irritable while being confined to the hospital room. But his parents and doctors felt the side effects were a small price for life. "Stem cell transplant has a real chance of a real complete cure," Lenarsky said.
The procedure worked: "Corben developed new bone marrow and a new immune system that functions perfectly." Umbilical cord blood stem cells may not have the full potential of embryonic stem cells, but there are plenty of diseases they can be used to fight right now.
Medical researchers are trying to figure out if they can create more valuable stem cells by combining human skin cells with rabbit eggs:
washingtonpost.com: Cloning Yields Human-Rabbit Hybrid Embryo: ...fusing human skin cells with rabbit eggs... allowed to develop in laboratory dishes... retrieve so-called embryonic stem cells from their interiors.... Researchers said yesterday they were hopeful that the rabbit work would lead to a new and plentiful source of embryonic stem cells for research and, eventually, for medical use...
But not so fast!
... theologians... decried the work as unethical.... Richard Doerflinger, of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he felt certain that the human-rabbit embryos were human enough to deserve protections. "I think because all the nuclear DNA is human," Doerflinger said, "we'd consider this an organism of the human species."
So here we are: drop the DNA from a human skin cell into a rabbit egg, let it divide and grow into a ball of cells, and Richard Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops *knows* that it is a human being, with a separate and distinct Immortal Soul to be cross-examined at the Last Judgment--and that it is a grave crime and mortal sin to use this ball of cells as a source of stem cells to try to heal somebody unlucky enough not to have umbilical stem cells available.
For your final examination in your course on the Frontiers of Medicine and Theology, write 2000 words answering the following questions: Would Jesus agree with Richard Doerflinger? If there be a Judgment Throne and if Richard Doerflinger should come before it, what excuses should he offer?
Posted by DeLong at August 20, 2003 07:09 AM | TrackBack
Compare and contrast:
Doerflinger:
"I think ... we [would]"
Delong on Doerflinger:
"Doerflinger ... *knows* [emphasis Delong's]"
In his defense, the reporter characterizes Doerflinger as being certain before offering this quote which flatly contradicts that characterization. Perhaps Brad trusts that the reporter has a bunch of *other* quotes which actually do support his claim, given Brad's high degree of confidence in the accuracy and competence of our press corps.
Posted by: Bill on August 20, 2003 02:07 PMI don't think Doerflinger's argument relies at all on whether a human being at any particular point in time has an "Immortal Soul." To the contrary. The argument focuses on rights that human beings have qua human beings.
The only person talking about Immortal Souls is the economist.
As for the underlying dispute: surely Delong must claim to *know* the status of this nascent life. He must *know* that this isn't a human being, or that this isn't a "person." There's no agnosticism when the creature is being destroyed. One must choose, and Delong does, though he hides his choice. What's he afraid of?
Posted by: Thomas on August 20, 2003 10:07 PM