Suffering, a cure, the unborn & my difficult decision

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ThomasGoffe

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On January 10, 1994 I was a 30 year old man and told I had Type I diabetes. As a result my career as a soldier ended, I lost my home and have had a host of painful and debilitating complications that will never get better. Over time I have come to realize that this is a blessing from God as it brings me closer His Son by better understanding the love he had for us through his Passion.

About 5 years ago I had an opportunity to obtain a possible cure. After investigation I learned that the research facility where I’d be treated conducted research using stem cells from unborn children. After prayer and discussions with my wife I decided I could not in good conscience allow myself to be associated with them. I believe that part of their work is inherently evil, notwithstanding the fact I could be cured and that my treatment was not directly related. There is a possibility that what they learned from me could be used to advance their projects associated with their fetal stem cell research. We agreed that this was a morally right decision but one question nags at me. Was I selfish to make a decision about continuing to be ill even though my family suffers by watching helplessly as my illness continues to extract an ever greater toll on them and on me? Or, as I prayerfully hope, is a greater good being served? All of my accumulated knowledge of comparative good does not readily provide for a satisfactory answer to silence these doubts. Could those doubts in fact be an extension of the suffering that I believe is a special gift from God?
 
Please seek guidance from your priest.

You did the right thing to stop your association with medical treatments that are inherently immoral.
 
I suppose you have to ask yourself whether by using products derived from some past act that was sinful you are somehow complicit in that original sin.

With situations such as this, there will always be a grey area since proximity to the sin will affect how you view it. Certainly if participating in a treatment such as this you will then lend material assistance to the commission of more sins, then no, you shouldn’t participate. If a discovery came as a result of a single evil act that was not going to be repeated, would you feel compelled to decline? That would be a harder question to answer. Certain advances may have come from the use of slave labour, for example. Does that mean that we should avoid those advances and all that’s derived from them now? It’s good question and very difficult to answer in a one-size-fits-all way. It could be argued that in some cases, despite the fact that an evil has taken place, if a good can be derived from it, it is wrong to deny the good simply because of the circumstances in which it arose. Is it material cooperation with sin or not?

I can only suggest that you consult your priest about this.

Personally I’d be very very hesitant to consider using a product derived from aborted babies, in particular if by using that product more babies were aborted. BUT… it is likely that none of those tragic deaths took place in order to create drugs - i.e. they weren’t being used as ‘raw materiel’ (horrible concept that it is) but were aborted for the reasons of the mother (and wrong ones at that). You could argue that the adults these murdered children could have ended up being might have wished for their lives to have achieved something. If that means that they essentially became organ donors (in the form of stem cells) incidental to the act of abortion rather than the abortion taking place because that’s what was required of the baby (saviour siblings, that sort of thing), then you might be able to come up with a form of justification to take the treatment. I don’t know. I’m not sufficiently versed in these things to come up with a solid conclusion and as such I would always err on the side of refusing the treatment. So definitely entrust this question to an authority that understands the morals and the science of this.
 
ThomasGoffe said:
Was I selfish to make a decision about continuing to be ill even though my family suffers by watching helplessly as my illness continues to extract an ever greater toll on them and on me?
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because this suffering is Gods will for you, then it also must be accepted as Gods will by those around you, even if it causes them to suffer as well,
it is good to have compassion on others, but we should not deny others the opportunity to offer up sufferings as well, although to ease someones pain or sorrow when you can is good, but when it just can’t be helped, like in your case, then the next best thing to do is speak with them about it, teach them how they can turn this suffering into a beautiful gift for Our Lord, because when we offer up our sufferings for the love of God, then they become our comfort…but we must offer them up selflessly, otherwise it’s not for the love of God but for our own gain, in which case it would not be such a comfort.

also consider the fact that, whether you are cured in this life or not, your suffering will not last forever, and if endured with love in union with Christs suffering, it will become a beautiful crown for you in heaven.

as for the place you decided not to go to for treatment, i completely agree with your decision, and i’m sure you’d get support from any priest you ask, so no worries.

and here are some articles i think may help you in further understanding the good of suffering for Christ and how to do it -
gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?t=21533807
gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?t=12961507

hope this helps, take care.
 
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