As a boy I was fascinated with the
study of the history of medicine. I saw that every
step in medical progress was held back by the Medical
Authorities. Every time a researcher found a treatment
that WORKED, the medical faculties in the old days
would fight him every inch of the way.
So when I got to the university and
ran into exactly the same situation with social
science professors today, I was ready for it.
Other constant villains of medical
history were priests and preachers. Every time a
researcher found a way to save lives or end suffering,
the churches denounced him from the pulpit. And
every time, the human cost was stupendous.
Lady Mary W. Montague was an early
eighteenth century Englishwoman. She was beautiful
until she contracted smallpox, which destroyed her
looks by scarring, as it routinely did.
On a visit to Turkey, Lady Montague
encountered a primitive but effective form of what
we now call vaccination against smallpox. She brought
this anti-smallpox treatment back to England with
her. It was highly effective and saved the looks
and lives of thousands of people.
But Lady Mary ended up being sorry
she did all that good. The pulpit viciously attacked
her. Preachers quoted the Bible about how putting
germs in the human body was playing God and desecrating
something built by God, and so forth.
We all know how medical progress was
held back by the churches' campaign against dissection.
The churches said that doctors were
playing God by presuming to dishonor dead bodies,
which were "the temple of the soul". Once again
they managed to hold back medical progress and ended
up being the villains of the piece.
As a boy, I saw all this as Good versus
Evil. To me the preachers and professors were Evil
and the medical pioneers were the heroes. But as
one matures one can see that a person can be terribly
wrong without being evil.
On May 12, 2001, in FRANCE
-- THE BOY IN THE BUBBLE, I showed how a little
French boy's life was saved by using human embryos.
I pointed out that French law prohibited the use
of those cells to save him, but when France was
faced with a real choice between a living boy and
the theoretical humanity of cells, the law collapsed
instantly.
Something similar happened in another
case. Twelve years ago an only child was dying,
and had to have a transplant from a sibling to survive.
So the parents had another child to save the first
one. The operation did the second child little harm,
both children are fine, and fifteen years later
the parents' courage is universally praised.
When they decided to have the new
child, the parents were attacked for "playing God."
A lot of people who claimed they were pro-life made
threats on the parents' lives. There were demonstrations
and denunciations. Like the case against dissection,
that seems very strange today.
Right now the theological battle against
using human stem cells for helping people is much
the same. Stem cells have no feelings, but using
them seems a violation of scripture to Bible literalists
and to the pope. But if those cells can actually
help real, living and feeling people, and the only
argument against it is that it shouldn't be done
because it is playing God, we are in another battle
that the theological side must lose.
In every battle like this in medical
history, the theological side has managed to block
progress and destroy millions of lives. Those theologians
are all villains of history, right along with the
old medical Authorities. Once again the fight will
do untold damage to serious Christianity.
St. Paul warned us that "the word
kills." In this case it is literally true.
If stem cells are used to bring Alzheimer's
and stroke patients back to life and crippled people
back on their feet, serious religion is going to
get hurt again. Many people who suffered in the
meantime will point to the precious time wasted
in the predictable and tragic battle with religious
people on this issue.
As in the case of dissection, smallpox
vaccination and hundreds of other examples, churches
will admit eventually their side was wrong -- again.
History will say, once again, that
the Bible was used to block medical progress as
long as possible. Once again, because of this routine
roadblock, lives were lost and suffering was vastly
increased.
This does not make the theological
people evil. But it makes them look ignorant and
blind. It hurts people and it hurts religion.
That is how the battle against stem
cell research is almost certain to turn out. I hope
that a large number of conservatives do what we
do best, and take a lesson from history.
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