Responses to How to win it back!:
How disappointing! Here is an article raising the crucial issue of ethics in the biomedical field, but done with unfortunate polarizing rhetoric. Cameron rightly lifts the issue, but seriously misdirects us by immediately framing the discussion in “us” versus “them” rhetoric, talking about “winning” in a complex area that needs more light and less heat. He disdains the “Made up term” of bioethics, then spends the whole article talking about his own expertise in bioethics. The large number of question he received at Saddleback are because people are interested in knowing more about these critical issues, not in organizing to “beat” someone else in some kind of political game. This is one are where the whole range of Christians need to look, think, and pray clearly, rather than just take marching orders to the next legislative battle. - S. S.
Re: Bioethics piece 23 June, are you aware of the National Catholic Bioethics Center or of their publication, The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly (now in its third year)? Thank you for your piece—you are surely right that we need to make a concerted effort to address this gaping and widening wound. - S. C. S.
The last two articles I have received have been troubling to me, on bioethics and the founding fathers. I just finished reading the Christian Century (6/28/05) where it gives statistics on US citizens belief in God:
2% do not believe in God
4% do not know and don't believe there is a way to find out
11% does not believe in a personal God but a higher power of some kind
2% find themselves believing in God somtimes but not others.
10% have doubts but feel that they do believe in God.
1% is not sure if there is a God.
70% say, "I know God really exists, and I have not doubts about it.
That means 80% believe in God. Unless the other 20% of whom only 7% say they do not believe, don't know and we can't know, are running everything in this country, where is the secular society pushing its agenda? If the Religious Right's withdrawal from society has increased its secularization, I think it is because many people have been turned off by their absolute certainties and judgments of others. Sometimes I fear that it affects my faith and I'm a Baptist minister!
About bio-ethics. If Bush's concerns are true about stem cell research, this would suggest that all the work with invitrio conception is morally wrong since many fertilized eggs are destroyed or frozen for ever. I have never heard any conservative mention that.
- J. B.
Regarding your recent articles on bioethics and why "Ywe" lost it, I would offer the following:
First, the American right wing, led prominently by the Christian Right, has not "lost" this battle at all; it is actively fighting it on its own terms, even if it is not sending thousands of acolytes into bioethics degree programs. They are fighting it on the political and social and judicial fronts, and they are (alas) succeeding all too often.
Second, to the degree that the American public disagrees with the Christian Right's positions on bioethical issues, it is because You Guys have bought into the religious precept that Life Begins at Conception, and You spend all your efforts pushing all ramifications of that position and opposing all programs and policies that differ with it. While most Americans would agree that that a fertilized egg is at least a "potential life" and that it should be accorded a degree of honor and respect and a shot at a "real life," but they simply don't accept that it has the full rights of a human being. Thus most Americans recognize that birth control, including condoms and Plan B pills and social programs that utilize birth control as a part of their arsenal of tools, are worthwhile and are an overall benefit to society. Similarly, most Americans recognize that while stem cell research is still unproven, it must be given the chance to find out whether it can help cure a wide range of diseases and save countless lives. Your opposition to these and other programs that infringe in the least on the Sanctity of Every Fertilized Egg cause you to lose out in the battle of public policy and opinion.
Americans of all religions are willing to agree that "potential life" is valuable and should not be treated like stale bread; but they are not willing to see thousands of young women give birth to unwanted children and replicate the generational cycle of poverty and crime at its expense. They are not willing to see thousands of young people get terrible diseases because of fear of using condoms or teaching teenagers how and why to use them. They are not willing to see thousands of raped women forced to give birth to children out of fear of abortion. They are not willing to watch their parents and spouses suffer for years and ultimately die of terrible diseases that might have been cured, if we simply used the fertilized eggs that were otherwise being destroyed anyway.
Those are a few reasons why you're losing the bioethical war. - R. P.
Editor's note: Click here to read Wesley Smith's article Stem-Cell Sleight of Hand
On Target!! I have just written a book entitled Virtual Grace...surrounding Dr. Assisted Suicide issues and the problems of the new medical ethics. I am a retired United Methodist Minister and teacher of Medical Ethics for many years. I hope you'll look at my book or email me for more information.. God Is With Us. - M. L. W. |
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