US Religious Leaders Divided
Over Bush’s Stem Cell Decision

President George W. Bush has received both praise and criticism from US religious leaders for his decision to allow limited federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

In his first televised address to the nation since being sworn in as president in January, Bush said he would permit federal funding for research for a reported 60 "lines" of stem cells already created from embryos.

He also supported funding for non-embryonic stem cell research, such as on cells derived from adults. But he refused to allow federal funding for research that would result in any further "harvesting" of stem cells from tens of thousands of embryos now frozen at US fertility clinics.

Stem cells are cells that are capable of growing into different kinds of human cells, such as liver, skin or nerve cells. A human embryo, a few days old, can be used to create a "reservoir" of stem cells, which is called a stem cell line. Many scientists argue that embryonic stem cell research can help in medical battles against such diseases as juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. However, removing stem cells destroys the embryo, and the issue therefore has serious ethical implications.

Bush's decision has been strongly criticized by US Roman Catholic leaders, but has received support from mainstream Protestants, and from the leader of the conservative Christian Coalition.

The president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, likened the existing stem cells to "ill-gotten goods" that had made the US government complicit in what he called "wrongdoing.'' "The trade-off [Bush] has announced is morally unacceptable," Fiorenza said in a statement. "The federal government, for the first time in history, will support research that relies on the destruction of some defenseless human beings for possible benefit to others."

However, the decision was praised by a key figure in Bush's own denomination, the United Methodist Church, one of the biggest Protestant denominations in the United States. In a statement issued on August 10, Jim Winkler, chief executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, said that the decision "provides a space to explore the potential of embryonic stem cell research without destroying [any more] human embryos."

The United Methodist Church has not taken a formal position on the issue of embryonic stem cell research. However, the denomination has called for a ban on cloning human embryos, as well as on research that it said "generates waste embryos."

Pat Robertson--president of the conservative Christian Coalition, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network and a one-time Republican presidential candidate--said Bush had provided "an elegant solution to the thorny issue of stem cell research by firmly protecting the rights of the unborn while allowing potentially life-saving research to go forward."

Larry Rasmussen, who teaches social ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, told ENI that the decision on stem cell research and the debate that surrounded it were evidence of a "new phase" in the field of social ethics.

"When you work on the basic building blocks of life itself, that ratchets up the social consequences considerably," Rasmussen said.

However, "social justice questions," such as the issue of access to any medical advances derived from stem cell research, had not been heard in the current debate, said Rasmussen, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

"Is the market going to determine who has the access to these medical advances?" Rasmussen asked. "You also don't have the voices of minority communities in the circles of bioethics, where questions of race, class and gender are not being asked."

The fact that a number of stem cell lines were owned by medical companies, he added, might mean that the field was "wide open for corporate funding" of stem cell research, something that could lead to new ethical questions.

Episcopal News Service, Aug. 21, 2001