The stem-cell research debate
The debate, of course, has become politicized. All debates that swirl through Washington do, it seems. Big constituencies and significant money are involved. At issue is whether federal dollars will help fund the research. What's noteworthy is not so much the political debate. What is noteworthy is, quite apart from the politics, the utter sincerity of participants on both sides.
The promise of stem-cell research, according to medical experts, is that embryonic stem cells, extracted from a human embryo, can transform into other types of cells that can repair tissue and possibly bring cures to illnesses where no medical cures exist. Experts agree that the fulfillment of the promise is still years away. But they feel an urgency to push ahead now.
The very different promise that some opponents see is that of a life - of an individual human being embodied in the embryo. This promise is present, they feel, even when the embryo is produced clinically through the procedure known as in vitro fertilization, is less than two weeks old, and hasn't been placed in a mother's womb. In other words, many opponents of stem-cell research feel that the death of a human embryo - which occurs when stem cells are extracted - is the death of a human being.
I have no inclination to enter this complex, passionate debate. Perhaps the different medical procedures -- for seeking a cure on the one hand or producing an embryo on the other -- are, for some observers, forever at odds.
But the differing promises are not. Not when those promises of cure and of a life are traced all the way back to the Almighty, their ultimate source. Because God, who is undivided Love, makes and keeps His promises, just as He makes and keeps the true identity of each of us. A tide of healing, stretching from Bible times through to the present, forwards the fulfillment of His promises. Healings of congenital defects, diabetes, malignant conditions, and more. And because these healings occur through purely spiritual means, God's promises of health and life are kept without causing harm, without one good thing being at odds with another good thing.
Remember, God is Spirit. So it's not surprising that His means of fulfilling promises are spiritual. And He is Love. So it's not unexpected that His pro-mises touch us in ways we can understand and by which we can feel blessed.
God keeps the identity of each of us safe and sure.
Perhaps the real choice is not between pursuing every promise of a cure or protecting every embryo. Both those goals laudably have deep, heartfelt support. Perhaps the real choice is between differing views of God, and therefore of us, His offspring. Gaining a clearer sense of God brings more of our true nature into focus. Your identity and mine are spiritual. This true identity is not subject to deficiency or deterioration. Nor is it vulnerable to destruction. These facts underpinned the spiritual healing performed by Moses, Elisha, Christ Jesus, and others.
These facts of our invulnerable spiritual identity buttress much of today's spiritual healing. God's healing and preservation of His offspring go hand in hand.
How does this happen without conflict? The answer has a lot to do with how God made us, how He sees us. When we glimpse ourselves as He does - in our true spiritual identity - any conflict begins to fade. Because no one's true identity is defective, and no one's has to be raided to aid another.
The founder of this newspaper, Mary Baker Eddy, once wrote: "The material body and mind are temporal, but the real man is spiritual and eternal. The identity of the real man is not lost, but found through this explanation; for the conscious infinitude of existence and of all identity is thereby discerned and remains unchanged. It is impossible that man should lose aught that is real, when God is all and eternally his" ("Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," pg. 302).
God keeps all His promises, not just eventually, but right here and now. He has health and life for each of us. That's because of who He is and who we are - the loved of Love, the offspring of Spirit, our identity forever in His care.
Keeping this in mind as we sort through the debate leavens our prayer, helping decisionmakers arrive at the most enlightened decisions possible. It will help us all find common ground.
