Commentary by Michael Hichborn
Great advances in medical science have come to us in various forms and at varying costs. Sometimes the cost is small, and sometimes the cost is too great to bear. In a time and age when medicine is expensive and human flesh is cheap, it is often confusing and difficult to determine just how far medicine should go for the greater good. Recently, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "Science is a gift of God to all of us and science has taken us to a place that is biblical in its power to cure, and that is embryonic stem cell research." But just how God-given can this research be?
Over 100 years ago, a man by the name of Louis Pasteur dedicated his life to making sick people well. Because of his efforts, many terrible diseases, which were once commonplace, have been nearly eradicated. Diseases such as polio, measles, and small pox are now a mere footnote in history because Louis Pasteur gave so much of himself for the greater good of mankind.
Madame Curie, a very well known and highly respected scientist, advanced medical science by light years because of her research and study in the field of radiology. Her personal sacrifices of time, and ultimately her own life, led to great accomplishments, not the least of which was the mobile X-ray machine.
It is plain to see that science has come a long way at great personal cost. But sometimes, scientific advancement comes at the cost of others. Just 60 years ago, modern medicine knew very little about hypothermia and the effects of rapid pressure change, but due to the efforts of Josef Mengele, the face of medicine was changed forever. Known as the "Angel of Death" among Jewish prisoners, Mengele performed the most brutal and inhuman experiments the history of medicine has ever known. Denying the humanity of the Jewish prisoners he experimented on, he justified his work as being for the greater good. While it may be said that the good of treatments of hypothermia and decompression sickness are the result of these horribly evil experiments, one can never claim that the experiments in and of themselves were a good thing.
But that is precisely what Nancy Pelosi is saying when she claims that embryonic stem cell research is a "gift from God." Pelosi, too, denies the humanity of an entire class of people. Pelosi also advocates brutal and inhuman experimentation on innocent human life. By calling human embryonic stem cell research a "gift from God," Nancy Pelosi dehumanizes the human, brutalizes the innocent, and advocates the deaths of untold millions of human beings-all in the name of advancing medical science.
Jesus Christ gave the world the gift of His own life when he allowed Himself to be nailed to a cross so that He may die for our sins. He died so that we may live. Nancy Pelosi, on the other hand, is offering the United States the lives of preborn human babies so that others may live. Which of these is truly "God given"?
Release issued: 15 Jun 07
