by Billy Atwell
The timing couldn’t be better. After a federal judge struck down voter-approved Proposition 8 in California, which defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman, Christians have been discouraged about the lack of continuity our public policies have with moral law. Judge Royce Lamberth issued an injunction earlier this week, which stopped federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research. Reuters called this “a slap to the Obama administration’s new guidelines.” While it is still unclear whether or not this injunction will ultimately stop federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, which kills human embryos, this is a temporary victory that Christians should be proud of.
“The president said very plainly when he laid out his stem cell policy that this is important, potentially lifesaving research that could have an impact on millions of Americans and people all around the world,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton said. “He thinks that we need to do research. He put forward stringent ethical guidelines, and he thinks that his policy is the right one.”
It seems that both President Obama and Burton are missing the point of the judge’s ruling. If it were true that an embryo-killing process could cure all of the cancers in the world, stop the spread of AIDS, and do other wonderful things, it still should not be done at the expense of other peoples’ lives. As the old saying goes, what we can do and what we should do are separate ideas.
Much of Judge Lamberth’s ruling hinged on the Obama administrations violation of the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, which bans federal funds for “research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.”
The concept behind embryonic stem cell research approves the killing of the most defenseless and voiceless humans in the name of those who voice their wants. We simply cannot allow some people to be killed so that others may have regenerated organs or hope for furthered cancer cures. As a two-time cancer survivor, I know the fear of living with a dangerous and deadly disease. Even so, I would not feel comfortable knowing that my life was saved at the expense of someone else.
Some people are discouraged that the judge’s ruling stops most scientific work that uses embryonic stem cells, even in cases when the procedure does not necessarily destroy them. The burden of proof is on them to prove that these embryos should be denied basic human rights. As noted by Ron Stoddart, executive director of Nightlight Christian Adoptions, there is no way to extract stem cells without destroying the embryo. This is no different than if we performed dangerous scientific experiments on babies or the elderly. It’s simply unethical to do deadly experiments on people—and since embryos are people, there is no moral option to continue with these tests.
The coming weeks and months will bear more of what will happen in the legal and scientific fields as a result of this ruling. Either way, Christians should look upon this ruling as a sign of hope in a culture that often instinctively turns in favor of the culture of death. The Obama administration’s attempt to open the flood gates of embryonic death have been thwarted, for now. Christians should be sure to press on and see these types of instances and glimmers of light and hope that our efforts are not done in vain.
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Billy Atwell contributes to Catholic Online, and blogs for The Point and the Manhattan Declaration. From the perspective of a two-time cancer survivor he encourages those afflicted with pain and struggling with faith. You can find all of his writings at For the Greater Glory.