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Sacred Cells?
Sacred Cells? Why Christians Should Support Stem Cell Research
Ted Peters, Karen Lebacqz, and Gaymon Bennett
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowmanlittlefield.com Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom Copyright © 2008 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. First paperback edition 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The hardback edition of this book was previously cataloged by the Library of Congress as follows: Peters, Ted, 1941– Sacred cells? : Why Christians should support stem cell research / Ted Peters, Karen Lebacqz, and Gaymon Bennett. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Stem cells—Research—Moral and ethical aspects. I. Lebacqz, Karen, 1945– II. Bennett, Gaymon, 1972– III. Title. QH588.S83P48 2008 174.2'8—dc22 2007052094 ISBN: 978-0-7425-6288-2 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN: 978-0-7425-6289-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN: 978-1-4422-0771-4 (electronic) Printed in the United States of America
⬁ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Preface
vii
Chapter 1
The Ethical Prehistory of Stem Cells
Chapter 2
From Science to Ethics in a Flash
13
Chapter 3
Working within the Research Standards Framework
31
Three Contending Frameworks for Stem Cell Ethics
39
Chapter 5
The Embryo Protection Framework
47
Chapter 6
The Human Protection Framework
61
Chapter 7
The Future Wholeness Framework
71
Chapter 8
Ethical Smoke and Mirrors in Washington
85
Chapter 9
The Hidden Theology behind the International Debates
95
Chapter 4
1
Chapter 10
The Vatican’s Strong Stand
111
Chapter 11
The Vatican and Embryology
119
Chapter 12
The Vatican Argument in a Cracked Nutshell
141
Chapter 13
Leon Kass, Protector of Human Nature
153
v
vi
Contents
Chapter 14
Jewish and Muslim Bioethics
171
Chapter 15
The Terror of the Chimera
185
Chapter 16
Justice and the Patenting Controversy
197
Chapter 17
The Spiritual Soul and Human Dignity
207
Chapter 18
The Ethics of the Ethicists
221
Chapter 19
Theologians Say “Yes” to Regenerative Medicine
233
Index
243
About the Authors
257
Preface
Misunderstandings about ethics are like TV commercials and online popups. They are everywhere, it seems. They are pesky. They interrupt. They annoy because they divert attention. Replacing misunderstanding with clarity and focus is the goal of this book. We start with five misunderstandings. The first is this: Science is fast, whereas religion is slow; religion is always lagging behind sci