Stem Cells

When i first looked at this assignment i didn't really know how i was going to go about it. I decided to first focus on my spot in our class when we did the faith/ science exercise I sat towards the back left in the "all around questionable" area, meaning that I question both religious and science and don't put unquestioned faith in either. I like to think of myself as open minded. I am a spiritual person and believe in some form of god, and higher meaning but i prefer to not isolate myself to just the judo-christian belief system and instead try to accept all religions/ types of spirituality as a different path to the same area, happiness and understanding. I also do not try to deny the existence of scientific facts but i do acknowledge that in the past the scientific community has been proved wrong on many issues from a flat earth to what causes illness. However i do like to give credit to science for the countless ways in which it has improved our lives, often in the face of opposition from organized religion.

This analyses of my own personal views led me to examine issues which where important to me and had some inherent issue between how they were viewed in the scientific community and how they were viewed in organized religion, especially from the judo-christian perspective. A debate that I had back in 8th grade in my catholic middle school involving stem cell research came to mind. My mom being a doctor was a big supporter of stem cell research because she said it could perform medical miracles if it was developed to its full potential. However, in my religion class it was argued that stem cell research was a violation of life and that any use of the human embryo for scientific research should be forbidden. I didn't know where to stand at first, they both seemed reasonable and they both demonized the other side.

It wasn't until later that year when i made up my mind for where i stood. My best friend Mike's dad had been diagnosed with cancer almost a year ago, at first it appeared contained but later had a resurgence and towards the end of the year he was awaiting death, the doctors only gave him a few weeks to live. He had applied for a experimental stem cell treatment but was denied, as were all that applied, due to a change in government policy towards stem cell research which no doubt had a great deal to do with the religious outrage which linked stem cell research to abortion and disrespect for life. Before we entered high school mikes dad had died, i was heavily influenced by this event and by my moms scientific claim that stem cells could work wonders in the medical world. At that moment i became a staunch supporter of stem cell research and also became more aligned with the science perspective. But now that i have mature in my perspectives i realize why this issue is such a stumbling block. It is not an issue of the facts, or even of the possible benefits of stem cell research but instead, a moral debate. And the only way to settle this debate is by considering both sides and applying NOMA theory to it, realizing that science deals with the natural world and natural problems and that religion is in the domain of moral problems.