Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Last night, I finished my final paper for The Bible and Social Ethics, a class I took at Fuller Seminary. It was a good class. We got to hear from the Senior Policy Analyst at Focus on the Family and about Justice for All, a blunt, educational ministry, informing college students graphically about the results of abortion.

I wrote my paper about embryonic stem cell research, because I wanted to dive into a topic I felt uninformed in. I ingnorantly dove into my Bible, looking for what the Lord might say to researchers who are destroying embryos for the stem cells within. The overarching message came as quite a surprise, "The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein (Ps. 24:1)." God's message to researchers, "Be very careful with my embryos."

An embryo does not primarily have value because of the mother or the father or even the society in which it is created. It has value because Creator God says it has value. Looking at embryos as God's possession has shaped my view on this tremendously. When a researcher destroys an embryo for the sake of research, he destroys someone who is owned by God.

Another new insight, was the foreknowledge of God throughout Scripture. God described both the personhood and behaviors of both Jesus and Isaac before either were concieved. This means to a timeless God, people exist and are known before they are even concieved; a new thought for me on this issue.

Lastly, I learned the distinction between embryonic stem cell research and adult stem cell research. Not all stem cell research is wrong. Researchers can and have been taking adult stem cells from spinal chords, nasal cavities, and bone marrow of adults. I find this type of stem cell research moral and ethical. I'm only against stem cell research which destoys human life, at whatever stage of development.

Here's how I chose to begin the conclusion:

In 1791, in Britain’s House of Commons, a young politician stood among his older, more experienced peers and said, “Never, never will we desist till we…extinguish every trace of this bloody traffic [slavery], of which our posterity, looking back to the history of those enlightened times, will scarce believe that it has been suffered to exist so long a disgrace and dishonor to this country.” History has proven William Wilberforce true and shown him to be a profound prophet and hero for humanity. His words speak into the current state of embryonic stem cell research like few others. There is a future day when all will see clearly the horrible, uncontested genocide happening in clinics and laboratories across the United States of America.