Rev. Thorin Anderson, Parkwood Baptist Church (Chicago)

OPINION - I am finding it difficult to believe that we have arrived where we are today in terms of medical ethics while there are still living reminders of the evils of eugenics, i.e. the Holocaust. How is it possible that we are willing again to redefine human life so as to exclude some with the purpose of using their body parts for another? I am referring to the embryo.

Oh, you say, "They aren’t people." Thus it was said of slaves and Jews. Have we become so narcissistic that we fail to see the obvious parallel? The unborn "cells" as some would call them are both human and living or they would be of no use to us; yet we are willing, apparently, to bring them into existence by means God has provided to us in order to destroy them for our own (hoped) benefit. Can anyone explain the difference between planting some of their cells into my brain to fight Alzheimer’s disease or into my stomach to combat hunger?

There are some who will dismiss my arguments as anti-intellectual and unsophisticated. In like manner the Nazis dismissed their critics. After all, Hitler believed the German people to be the master race. Every utopian dreamer who has come into power has ultimately done more harm than good. In our hearts we all know that once we cross the line and take one human life to benefit another there are no more boundaries other than brute force. If it is morally acceptable to use a three day old embryo, then why not one at 7 days? And if it is all right at 7 days then why not at 10 days? And if it’s all right at 10 days then why not at 20 days, etc? Once you have crossed the threshold of life itself, there is no necessary stopping point; and this is why you end up with people such as Peter Singer teaching at Princeton that parents ought to have the right to kill their own children up to a certain age if they so desire.

In recent years, as technology has advanced, we have become aware of how easily humans might err and condemn an innocent man for a murder he did not commit. Many suggest that we ban the death penalty completely because mistakes are too easy to make and human life too valuable. Yet, the proponents of embryonic stem cell research apparently believe that we know all we need to know about these cells’ non-humanity, but that something we don’t yet know will help mankind. If, during a mine disaster, someone were to say, "Some experts believe the minors are still alive but others think they have perished, so let’s seal off the shafts and go home," we would call him evil. Yet this is where we stand today with regard to the unborn. There is credible evidence they are little humans, younger versions of ourselves, but we treat them as expendable.

It is one thing for me to voluntarily "lay down my life for a friend." It is a totally different thing for me to demand that others lay down their lives for me.

As we look around the world, and tragically, even here at times, we see how the powerful often prey upon the weak. Christianity, in the person of Christ Himself, pointed out another way, the right way, a way in which the strong use their strength to protect the weak. It is a philosophy which to a large degree is responsible for America’s greatness. Once we cross the line and begin to view those with less power, less intelligence, or fewer years of life as property at our disposal, who exist for nothing other than our personal benefit, we begin our final descent into moral darkness.

 

Reverend Thorin Anderson is the pastor of Parkwood Baptist Church on the south side of Chicago. He is also President of Men for Christ, an association that organizes annual weekend men's rallies in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois on a rotating basis.