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Back to Bioethics
Back to Bioethics
I have been trying to get up to a layman's level in understanding the issues surrounding stem cell research and cloning. I am presently in the Nursery Class, but hoping to graduate to the next level soon (The furniture here is way too small for me, and the other kids are looking at me kind of funny - Kinda like, "What's the old guy doing in our class?")
I have come to the conclusion that much of the discussion, from a spiritual/ethical perspective, revolves around our understanding of when a fertilized egg becomes a person, or, in Scriptural language, becomes a living soul. The answers to this question range from the Pope's perspective that a unique person is created and becomes a living soul at conception, to the view that a fetus only becomes a person at birth, or as some people of faith understand it, undergoes ensoulment at birth.
Between these two positions are a variety of assertions and understandings of when ensoulment takes place. Various points in the fetal development have been identified as the point when a embryo becomes a person. One that I found interesting was a position based on the Biblical premise that the life is in the blood, and so pointed to the point in development when blood first appears in the embryo (Approximately 20 days). Others point to the development of the brain, and with it self-awareness as the defining moment of personhood. Our answer to the question, "When does ensoulment take place," will shape our answer to the ethical questions that surround the use of discarded embryos for stem cell research.
Does anybody have any comment on the "life in the blood" position, or any general comment on the OT view of personhood. Some assert that Judaism held/holds birth as the moment of ensoulment, which opens a door to abortion for permissible cause. The "life in the blood" theory would allow for the use of embryos for research while disallowing abortion. The ensoulment at conception would, from a Christian perspective, disallow both abortion and the use of embryonic stem cells for research, and would demand that we view even the fertilized ovum as a living soul. If you have read to this point, you must be extremely bored or have some interest in this topic. If you do have an interest, why not share your thoughts; they can't be more elementary than mine.
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