Snead & Wardle (and Newman) on Stem Cell Research

Yesterday's Murphy Institute program on "Embryo Rights and Stem Cell Research" with Carter Snead & Lynn Wardle was (not surprisingly, given the speakers) excellent.  We'll be posting the video here soon.  I was particularly intrigued by Lynn's discussion of the contrast between the firm and explicit statements made by LDS religious authorities on abortion, and their failure to make any sort of statement about stem cell research.  His speculation about the reasons for this included an explanation of Mormon beliefs on the importance of the intellectual work that men and women are expected to do in trying to work through a particular topic before their minds are ready to receive God's revelations about that topic.  Lynn suggested a number of other possible explanations, but this one particularly intrigued me -- that there might just still be too much uncertainty about the possibilities and dangers of this sort of research for us to be ready to hear (and correctly understand) what God might be trying to tell us about this topic.

The discussion made me think about the Blessed John Henry Newman's writings about the interplay between faith and reason.  One of my favorites is one of his pre-conversion Oxford Sermons (Number 15), in which he precedes an exploration of the interplay between faith and reason with an introduction asserting the Virgin Mary as its paradigm.  Mary, he argues, is “our pattern of Faith.”  Her fiat, her complete acceptance of the truth of the Angel Gabriel’s message about the child she was being asked to bear, her absolute and total “be it unto me according to thy word,” is the paradigm of faith for all of us.  She received an impression of a divine truth through a revelation more vivid and powerful than most, and she accepted it fully, almost instantaneously. 

However, Newman continues, “Mary’s faith did not end in a mere acquiescence in Divine providences and revelations:  as the text informs us, she ‘pondered them.’” Newman highlights the many instances in which the Scriptures explicitly note that Mary actively reflected on things that others were saying about Jesus and on Jesus’s actions – at the adoration of the shepards at the Nativity, at the finding of Jesus in the Temple arguing with the doctors, and at the wedding at Cana.  In this pondering, this reflection, this application of reason to the truth of Jesus’ divine nature that she had accepted at the Annunciation, Mary is our pattern of Faith both in our reception of divine truths and in our natural response to this reception --- our reflection upon it.  Newman emphasizes:  "She does not think it enough to accept, she dwells upon it;  not enough to possess, she uses it;  not enough to assent, she developes it; not enough to submit the Reason, she reasons upon it;  not indeed reasoning first, and believing afterwards . . . , yet first believing without reasoning, next from love and reverence, reasoning after believing."

       In the area of stem cell research, there seems to be so much pressure to accept the position suggested as one possiblity by Lynn -- we haven't yet figured enough out about the science, so we're not yet in a position to understand what God might be trying to reveal to us.  In contrast, the Catholic position seems to be -- the more we learn from science, the more we come to understand all the ways in which the fundamental position that life begins at conception is proven to be true, again and again -- Carter's talk was a wonderful articulation of that position. 

    This morning I heard this story on MPR:  "Scientists and security specialists are in the midst of a fierce debate over recent experiments on a strain of bird flu virus that made it more contagious. The big question: Should the results be made public?  Critics say doing so could potentially reveal how to make powerful new bioweapons."  It struck me as a fascinating example of a situation where the "scientific imperative" to always forge ahead with any sort of scientific research, regardless of the dangers or collateral cost -- was being seriously questioned, even by members of the scientific establishment.  The possibility of millions of  -- already born -- humans being killed by rogue viruses is seen as a serious threat.  Too bad the reality of millions of -- not yet born -- humans being killed in the pursuit of the elusive rewards of embryonic stem cell research isn't being taken as seriously.

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