Christian Worldview Concepts

What is at Stake in the Stem Cell Debate?

Quality of Life or Sanctity of Life?

The cultural, moral and religious (or non-religious) diversity within modern society makes arriving at any normative consensus on ethics nearly impossible. While science peels away layer upon layer of biological mystery, the loss of moral knowledge within our culture makes it difficult to reach any sort of consensus on whether these new discoveries are beneficial or burdens; perils or promises. As new technologies and new therapies go online, we find it harder and harder to keep pace with the moral questions that they frequently provoke. Simply put, the question is this: because we can do something, does this mean that we should do something? How is it possible to be decisive about such questions when tolerance of opposing points of view is to be respected?

The implications of the technological imperative are never more poignant than they are in the current contestation over stem cell research, particularly when the stem cells in question are embryonic. The heart of the ethical debate (and therefore the political debate) is the question of the human embryo; its moral status and what is appropriate in our handling of embryos. This is an issue that transcends abortion and the other moral debates of the 20th Century. This is a debate about the 21st Century, about the kind of medicine that will be practiced based upon what people come to expect or demand. Will we become a society that expects doctors to use whatever means necessary to keep us alive, even if it means sacrificing one human life to save another? Will the quality of life ethic finally overcome a sanctity of life ethic, rendering society unresponsive to objections over the killing of human beings for medical purposes?