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Catholic News Service |
WASHINGTON --- The Catholic Church faces a "huge challenge" in making its voice heard on the controversial issues surrounding human stem-cell research, a Jesuit geneticist and bioethicist told a group of U.S. bishops Nov. 14.
Jesuit Father Kevin T. FitzGerald, a cancer researcher at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago who is studying for a doctorate in bioethics from Georgetown University, addressed a workshop for some 60 bishops along with Daniel R. Marshak, a biochemist who is chief scientific officer for Osiris Therapeutics in Baltimore.
The morning workshop sponsored by the bishops' committees on Science and Human Values and on Pro-Life Activities took place the day before the opening of the bishops' fall general meeting in Washington.
Father FitzGerald said it is essential for Church leaders to become informed about the scientific and medical advances, including research into human stem cells, the precursor cells that can develop into multiple tissue types.
"The Church has always used knowledge in the past to inform us on what it means to be human, and that includes scientific and biological knowledge," the Jesuit said.
"If we don't integrate new biological information (into discussions on these issues), we automatically forfeit one of our levels of entry into the scientific debate," Father FitzGerald added. "We're saying we're not interested in that new information."
Marshak, whose biotechnology company specializes in potential medical applications of adult stem cells, detailed the medical advances that stem cells have brought about in what he called "the new field of regenerative medicine."
Experiments with animals and some trials with humans seem to indicate that it will be possible to use adult stem cells to regenerate bone, blood, cartilage, tendons and ligaments, muscle and even heart tissue, Marshak said.
The benefits of such technology include helping cancer patients regrow the blood cells destroyed by chemotherapy and avoiding knee replacement surgery by helping patients regrow cartilage lost to osteoarthritis, he said.
But as with some other advances, "technology has sometimes overwhelmed" the scientists involved in stem-cell research, "to the detriment of their spiritual and moral development," Marshak said.
He stressed, however, that although there are moral concerns about stem-cell research involving the use of discarded embryos or aborted fetuses, "no ethical concerns have been expressed about obtaining bone marrow for use as stem cells, as long as there is informed consent."
Father FitzGerald said the ethical concerns surrounding the use of adult stems cells are the same as those involving any use of medical resources: risk vs. benefit for the patient, informed consent, and equal access to medical advances for the poor.
But he said much of the discussion surrounding stem-cell research and other cutting-edge technology is based on a different understanding of medicine than a few decades ago. Although patients once approached medicine expecting alleviation of suffering, "they now come in to be cured," Father FitzGerald said. "That expectation drives a lot of the hype about these medical advances that you see in the media."
Patients will come into the cancer center where he works carrying a Time magazine article that say stem-cells can be used to cure breast cancer and say, "Cure me," the priest added.
In a question-and-answer period, one bishop raised a concern about how the average Catholic will respond if, for example, a cure is found for Parkinson's disease but the Church decides it is immoral because it involves the use of aborted fetuses or discarded embryos to obtain the stem cells.
"It will be difficult to tell Catholics they can't use it," the bishop said. "That would be a very hard sell."
Father FitzGerald said, however, that the same situation already exists in relation to in vitro fertilization, which is technologically possible but rejected by the Church. "It's that practical wrestling (with an issue) that you're already doing now," he said.
Copyright ©1999 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
This article was published in the Arlington
Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol 24, No 45,
page 10, dated November 11, 1999.
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A note from the Web Master:
It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion. Let us not forget that ordinary everyday run of the mill abortion is also murder. We must understand that aborting the life of a baby is murder no matter the method. Because one method of abortion seems to be horrible does not make the other methods less so. We should be horrified and sickened by any abortion regardless of the method. The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly:
"Thou shalt not kill."
A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul.
Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any abortion occurs. Please
contact both of your Senators and Representative, via letter or phone,
to let them know how horrified you are that abortions are legal and to
stop, once and for all, Partial-Birth abortions and all other abortions
as soon as possible.
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