Embryonic stem cell dillema

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George2:
It is quite simple to me:

I won’t ever knowingly take any medicine developed by murdering human beings.

I have no right to benefit from their deaths, and taking it would legitimate their unwilling sacrifice. Also we must as Christians give witness to what is right.
I doubt much the Church would ever command individual Christians to go to their deaths over this issue or suffer illness because of conscientious objection, but I would rather die than take these “final solutions” and I am not first person to have said that.

It is a deadly euphemism to call it research. It is done without the informed consent of individual human beings and worse still it results in their death.

If we could do this to 12 cell embyronic humans, why can’t we do it to 12 week year old fetal humans or harvest the organs from 7 month olds - seven month olds genetically engineered to grow without heads - making the theft of their organs and subsequent medicinal murder that much more palatable.

Doesn’t anyone see where this is going. We are living in a cruel post-human future.

Reject it with all your might, go to jail if you have to but do what you must in your own capacity and never accept this anti-Christian ethos.

“To be a Christian is to suffer”. I cannot for the life of me imagine Christ taking a medicine created from the destruction of innocent human life.
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Hi George2! 👋

What do you think is the moral thing to do with frozen embryos?

In Christ,
Nancy 🙂
 
Dr. Colossus:
One other clarification I should point out is that if they don’t know and have had no reason to find out, there is no culpability in this. Though incest may be objectively evil, no sin was committed in this case because of insufficient knowledge.
Hi Dr. Colossus! 👋

Yes, I agree. The problem is the greater chance of birth defects.

In Christ,
Nancy 🙂
 
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Catholic4aReasn:
Hi George2! 👋

What do you think is the moral thing to do with frozen embryos?

In Christ,
Nancy 🙂
The Church teaches that one does not have to be kept alive by extraordinary means. Perhaps freezing is considered extraordinary life support. I think it would follow that these humans could be allowed to die a dignified death. Just remove the artificial life support.
 
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Catholic4aReasn:
Hi itsjustdave1988! 👋

Is that what the blood test is for before marriage. I didn’t need one and never knew what they used to be for.

In Christ,
Nancy 🙂
I think they where originally done because there are certain blood types that don’t work together especially when having kids… I guess with medical progress it isn’t needed anymore.

As for the embryo adoption I know that the embryos are donated, I am sure they have some sort of precautions they take to try and make sure the worst doesn’t happen. I don’t see that problem with it ethically,in fact an arguement for it could be made. I went online and looked up embryo adoption… I personally would rather adopt an embryo and give it life, than have it die being used for medical testing… Anyways, 🙂 the majority of the agencies I found where Christan based… I don’t know if that helps.
 
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Monica02:
The Church teaches that one does not have to be kept alive by extraordinary means. Perhaps freezing is considered extraordinary life support. I think it would follow that these humans could be allowed to die a dignified death. Just remove the artificial life support.
Hi Monica02! 👋

If I’m understanding you correctly you’re saying that it’s more moral to let these babies dies a natural death than be killed as a result of research. Is that accurate?

In Christ,
Nancy 🙂
 
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Catholic4aReasn:
Yikes Dr. Colossus!! :bigyikes:

I didn’t make myself very clear! Let me give you an example.

My best friend’s son was in vitro. There are embryos that are yet unused. A couple comes along and adopts a few of the embryos and has a baby girl. One day that girl and my friend’s son meet, fall in love, get married and have children of their own. Problem is they are brother and sister and have no idea.

Does that make more sense?? Sorry for the confusion. You must have though I was a real nut!

In Christ,
Nancy 🙂
I believe the Church bases its ruling of Incest on the Bible, which only prohibits incest within the family regardless of DNA. So a adopted boy cannot marry his sister, even though they are not biological siblings. The main issue with incest is the degrading of the family structure(both Bio and Social), the other is birth defects.
But there is some urban myths out there about that. Theres 99.99% chance that a child of 2 related parants would be perfectly fine. it is only when the gene pool is very limited and therefore filters certain genetic traits. With this said there is not a major issue of having the occasional siblings procreate in a form of 2 sepertaly adopted people who do not know they are siblings out of ignorance. Its only when large and long family lines of incest is there a real danger of genetic defects and loss of social progression.
 
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Jermosh:
I believe the Church bases its ruling of Incest on the Bible, which only prohibits incest within the family regardless of DNA. So a adopted boy cannot marry his sister, even though they are not biological siblings. The main issue with incest is the degrading of the family structure(both Bio and Social), the other is birth defects.
But there is some urban myths out there about that. Theres 99.99% chance that a child of 2 related parants would be perfectly fine. it is only when the gene pool is very limited and therefore filters certain genetic traits. With this said there is not a major issue of having the occasional siblings procreate in a form of 2 sepertaly adopted people who do not know they are siblings out of ignorance. Its only when large and long family lines of incest is there a real danger of genetic defects and loss of social progression.
Well that I did not know! Thank you very much!!

In Christ,
Nancy 🙂
 
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Catholic4aReasn:
My best friend’s son was in vitro. There are embryos that are yet unused. A couple comes along and adopts a few of the embryos and has a baby girl. One day that girl and my friend’s son meet, fall in love, get married and have children of their own. Problem is they are brother and sister and have no idea.
By this argument, adoption is immoral since the same thing can result.
 
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Patrick2340:
By this argument, adoption is immoral since the same thing can result.
I suppose so, but you don’t think it would be more likely to happen with the adoption of embryos? Most adoptions are open these days, so people are more aware of who their siblings are.

I’m not disagreeing with you, just throwing out food for thought.

In Christ,
Nancy 🙂
 
It wouldn’t be likely at all if records were kept for embryonic children just as they are kept for adopted children.
 
regarding pre-marital bloodtests …
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AmyS:
I think they where originally done because there are certain blood types that don’t work together especially when having kids… I guess with medical progress it isn’t needed anymore.
Actually, the blood tests, as I understood it, were to screen for various STD’s. I don’t believe the tests included type testing, although it may have.

WRT the blood types that don’t work especially well together, the concern is for women who are RH- marrying a man who is RH+. If the child inherits RH+ blood, this blood protein can be introduced into the mothers system at delivery, or if there is any case of fetal bleed that crosses the placental barrier (this doesn’t happen in most pregnancies, so mom’s out there, relax, God’s design continues to be good, even for those of us who are RH-). If the childs RH+ blood enters the mothers bloodstream, it is recommended that she immediately be given a Rhogam shot (at least this was the mode of delivery 12 yrs ago, when my daughter was born). The protein in the Rhogam shot bind to the RH protein, preventing the maternal immune system from detecting a rogue protein that it needs to develop defenses against.

Prior to this, families with an RH- mother and RH+ father frequently had difficulties with the third and subsequent child, as by then the mother may have developed an immune system response to the protein. Once it detects the fetal blood (again, it doesn’t typically cross the placental barrier), it will perceive it to be foreign protein which needs to be attacked. The children were frequently born having had oxygen deficiency during the final portion of the pregnancy or perhaps only during the delivery. But there were complications for the child.

I thank God that he has given us excellent brains for research so that through ethical means, we have been able to resolve so many of the challenges we face. I pray that researchers realize that the marvelous results derived through adult stem cell research demonstrates the beauty of working within God’s plan, and the folly of attempting to thwart it.

I fear for the souls of all those involved in pursuing Fetal Stem Cell Research, as they strive to “Concur Death and Disease”. Do they not recognize the sin of presumption? Life and Death are for God alone to decide. Certainly we do well to research and serve mankind, helping them to live long and healthy lives. But we will each face our Maker at the end of our Mortal Lives. This is for all mankind and cannot be avoided.

Rather that we spend our energy focused on the reality of our mortal lives and immortal souls, and prioritize accordingly.

Has anyone put serious effort into attempting to recall Prop 71? If so, I would gladly work to get signatures.

CARose
 
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Catholic4aReasn:
As Catholics, when we are presented with two undesirable choices we choose that which does the least harm. However, when it comes to stem cell research on currently frozen embryos I’m at a loss. Perhaps someone can shed some light on this for me.

The two undesireable choices are:
  1. Simply dispose of the embryo which causes death.
  2. Do research on the embryo which causes death.
Is the Church opposed to choice #2? If so, what do they make of choice #1? Adoption of embryos can lead to cases where siblings meet and marry without ever knowing it, so that’s out. Is there another choices that I’m not seeing?

Thanks for your moral guidance!!

In Christ,
Nancy 🙂
How about this one…end the legality of abortion completely and then we don’t have to worry about either. I know…wishful thinking, but I can’t help it.
 
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CARose:
Has anyone put serious effort into attempting to recall Prop 71? If so, I would gladly work to get signatures.

CARose
My sister in law has contacted the Thomas Moore School of Law and they said they had many aquirements on the proposition… I just hope something happens, and people don’t give up on California… I know that there is a web site for the California Bishops Council (I think that is it) and they sound like they might be doing something… I will keep you updated if there is any progress.
 
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Des:
I was told even implanting a viable embryo inside a surrogate mother is intrinsically evil and against Church teachings. You cant do evil(implantation) to stop evil(intentially kill the zygotes). Perhaps leaving them frozen is the best and lesser immoral choice for now.
I have heard this also. I think this is an area of investigation and no decision has been made about it. The intrinsic evil that is to be avoided is the separation of the procreative and unitive aspects of conjugal love. This intrinsic evil would not be the act of the adopting mother, but rather was the act of the IVF. The mere implantation of the already concevied, extra, frozen embryo would not be an act of separating the procreative and unitive aspects of conjugal love. The implantation would be an act of love on the part of the mother to save the live of the child and would not involve any intrinsic evil since the evil act had already been completed. That is how I see it at this time. Now perhaps someone knows another intrinsic evil associated with the act of implantation that I have not considered. If so I would like to hear what that intrinsic evil would be.
 
Hi I am new here but not to the Catholic Church. I know this thread is a bit old but thought I 'de respond to some of what I read.
Their is a big difference to embryo adoption and embryo donation. There is an adoption agency in CA that does embryo adoption. Through embryo adoption the genetic familiy “chooses” an adoptive family much like a birth mom does. This agency provides “open adoption”…that way the genetic family and adoptive family knows about any genetic siblings and their location. With “donation” the genetic family “donates” embryos annonymously.
 
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