Stem cell ethics – Is embryonic stem cell research ethical?
Stem cell research has become controversial because it focuses attention on moral and theological issues as well as medical ones. When we consider stem cell ethics, we immediately find we are balancing what medical good might come from using embryonic stem-cell lines against the possible harm, not only to an embryo, but to a society that already may place too little value on human life. Further complicating the issue is our very view of God. Some Christians believe that God Himself has blessed mankind with the ability to understand and act on complicated scientific matters. They feel we would be poor stewards of these gifts if we did not use them. Others believe we are “playing God” if we delve into these mysteries; that these scientific “advances” are little more than extensions of Adam and Eve’s ill-fated choice to eat of the tree of knowledge. Christian theologian C.S. Lewis warns against separating nature from God in his book The Abolition of Man: “We reduce things to mere Nature i
