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Federal Funding for Stem Cell Research?
By Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, Ph.D.
Minaret of Freedom Institute
08/08/2001
The debate over funding and regulation of stem cell research has grabbed the headlines. But, in actuality, it is really a small sub-issue in the broader field of medical ethics, becoming a proxy battle over the issue of abortion, when it should really be a take-off point for a discussion of how one balances other cherished values against the value of promoting - even saving - lives in the future.
The first thing we must acknowledge before even starting the debate is that benefits from stem cell research will come some time in the future. It may be decades before we see practical commercial applications that will help victims of Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, and strokes, or before we see the disabled gain the ability to get out of their wheelchairs and walk (although when it comes to scientific progress, things usually come to fruition far sooner than most people guess).
So what is a stem cell? "A stem cell is any cell that can give rise to more than one kind of cell." The easiest way to obtain such cells is from human embryos, that is, fetal tissue that has not yet differentiated. Cells in that state would eventually develop into differentiated cells appropriate to the creation of different organs of the human body. It is their versatility for which they are prized.
But what moral issues rise from this research?
The main issue has been the question of whether it is morally permissible to use embryo material for purposes other than that of gestation into human beings. The entire pro-life movement, but especially the Catholic Church and Evangelical Christians, have become concerned about the perceived link to abortion, because they believe such research poses the risk of encouraging women to have abortions in order to provide stem cells. Worse yet, some women may decide to get pregnant specifically so that the embryo may be aborted to harvest stem cells.
Are moral issues inherent to the nature of the research?
The simple fact is that they are not. Even the bill that was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives last week (H.R. 2505) was really a ban on human cloning. It did, however, make no exception for therapeutic cloning, that is, the extraction of stem cells from cloned embryos. Thus, the debate was expanded to include a debate on the issue of stem cell research. In particular, the question is being debated on whether federal funds should be used to support stem cell research. The National Institute of Health's (NIH) guidelines in the United States specifically forbid the creation of embryos for research purposes, while the British government has announced a policy permitting the practice (Bailey, 2000).
For Muslims the debates that drive Catholic and Evangelical concerns are not pertinent. Ensoulment, the moment at which a fetus receives a soul, according to the Qur'an and
sunnah (way of the Prophet Mohammad [SAW]), does not occur until the fourth month of pregnancy. Thus, the use of embryonic stem cells, in itself, does not violate Islamic law. Even if the termination of a pregnancy is involved, there can be no question that the dictum "abortion is murder" can be applied, since the embryo is not a person. Nonetheless, the question of whether the creation of an embryo by a husband and wife specifically for the purpose of creating stem cells for the medical treatment of the couple or their children, or other relatives, should be prohibited, remains controversial in Muslim circles. Bill Broadway (2001) quotes Hassan Hathout of the Islamic Organization for Medical Sciences in Kuwait to the effect that "Islam opposes creating embryos with the intention of using them for research."
Fortunately, ethical dilemmas by which pundits sell newspapers and politicians scramble for votes, are not central to the future of stem cell research. Embryos may be the easiest way to obtain stem cells, but they are not the only way. A number of important breakthroughs in animal studies have already been achieved in stem cell research; these progresses would not entail recourse to embryonic sources, or other products requiring abortion. Adult stem cells, or stem cells from umbilical cords, have provided the material with which scientists have engaged in major research in Italian organ transplant studies; in the University of South Florida's stroke research into the alleviation of stroke symptoms; in the creation of heart tissue by the people who cloned "Dolly" the sheep; and in HIV-related research at Enzio Biochem, Inc. In other words, Allah, in his bounty, always opens more doors than He closes.
The fact is that those who complain that federal funding of stem cell research is necessary because commercial institutions won't fund research on their own, miss the fundamental point of economic calculation. If the market decides that funding of research through
halal (Islamically permissible) means cannot be economically justified, then perhaps the market is telling us that the costs outweigh the benefits. To try to solve this "problem" by injecting government money, especially when some taxpayers have religious objections as to how their money shall be used, is to assert that politicians are better arbiters of how to balance the morality of protecting the weak (e.g., embryos) against advancing the quality of life for the rest of society. Politicians, however, are notoriously the most shortsighted members of society, generally incapable of seeing beyond the next election.
If subsidies are required for this kind of research, let it be through the vehicle of research universities, or the establishment of dedicated research foundations funded by those whose values reflect the missions of the institutions. In classical Islamic society, we had such institutions. They were called
awqâf.
References
Bailey, Ronald 2000. "Getting On With It," Reason Online (08/24/2000)
Broadway, Bill 2001. "Faith Is a Force On Both Sides of Stem Cell Debate: Religious Communities Split Sharply On Permitting Embryonic Research,"
Washington Post (08/4/2001) B9.
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