wfn.org | [LCMSNews] CTCR issues 'faith, life' report

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	December 5, 2005 .................... LCMSNews -- No. 76

	CTCR: `Care, not kill` applies to all human embryos

	By Roland Lovstad

	"Always to care, never to kill" is a principle that applies to
all human embryos, even those developed outside the womb through
scientific methods such as in-vitro fertilization, concludes a new
report from the LCMS Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR).

	"Christian Faith and Human Beginnings" was adopted by the CTCR
in September. It is scheduled to be distributed to congregations and all
rostered church workers by the end of this year. Requested by the 1998
LCMS Convention, this report is intended to guide Christian response to
the use of fertilized human eggs for medical research such as recovery
of stem cells. It describes techniques for in-vitro fertilization and
cloning and provides a glossary of related terms.

	Dr. Samuel Nafzger, executive director of the CTCR, believes the
report is one of the most significant documents the commission has
prepared. "It is an important document, very technical, but very
readable," he said. "It makes the strongest case that neither science
nor medicine has documented reasons for change in the long-standing LCMS
position that human life -- and that includes pre-implantation life --
is included under the Scriptural mandate for protection and care."

	In-vitro fertilization is the clinical practice of fertilizing
human eggs in a laboratory setting and often includes decisions not to
transfer all the eggs into the woman's body. Some are frozen for
possible future transfer and others are discarded.

	The commission cites several contemporary factors pressing for
the use of the leftover fertilized eggs. Scientific curiosity seeks to
unlock secrets of the embryo. Medical research sees embryos as sources
for stem cells, which may have potential for treatment of disease. The
commission also notes that the promise of economic gain may override
moral concerns for the status of the embryo.

	"Today we know that in-vitro fertilization is a widely used
technology, and that we cannot escape pondering the significance of
human life presented to us in Petri dishes in an in-vitro fertilization
clinic," reads the report. "Access to human life in these earliest
stages in a laboratory setting requires us carefully to examine the
sources of some people's uneasy sense that life in this form is
'doubtfully' an object of compassion and love.

	"Upon examination," the report continues, "the Commission on
Theology and Church Relations has remained convinced that both biblical
and philosophical perspectives support the wisdom of protecting
pre-implantation embryos from the time of conception." The report adds
that cloning pre-implantation human life for stem cells also ends the
development of the embryo, preventing it from developing into a
live-born human.

	"Human embryos, beginning with conception, are set on a course
of development that leads continuously to an unfolding of a unique human
life," says the CTCR report. The commission says it found no moment in
that "unfolding" that establishes a basis for distinguishing between
embryonic life that need not be protected and embryonic or fetal or
live-born life that should be protected.

	The burden of proof to the contrary lies with those who argue
for removing protection from pre-implantation embryos, the report
states.

	The report cites Jer. 1:5, Ps. 139:13-16, Job 10:8-12, and Job
31:15 as biblical texts often used in arguments concerning
pre-implantation embryos.

	"When conversing with people who are not convinced that these
passages and principles extend to pre-implantation human life, we can
nonetheless assert that -- at the very least -- the bias in Scripture
testifies to God's care for all human life," the report says.

	"This comprehensive care casts reasonable doubt upon attempts to
remove embryonic human life from under the umbrella of God's love," the
report continues. "Furthermore, Scripture offers no guidelines for
exempting certain lives from God's interest and care."

	The report also argues that the biblical call to see embryos as
our "neighbors" through our love and care -- as illustrated in Jesus'
parable of the Good Samaritan -- is much clearer than opposing arguments
that suggest human life need not be protected from the earliest stages
of its development. Scripture calls again and again, the report says,
"to love and service of the 'least of these,' our brothers and sisters."

	"The approaches proposed thus far do not succeed in providing
clear and convincing evidence to lift the burden of proof that lies on
those who propose to destroy embryos," the report concludes. "In the
absence of decisive arguments, pre-implantation embryonic life should be
afforded the benefit of the doubt and the benefit of life."

	The report also warns, "If we become accustomed to excluding
some human lives even when we may reasonably doubt the ethics of the
exclusion, we may in our sinful pride find pretexts also to exclude
other lives from the circle of our care. This fact of human moral
carelessness should make us all redouble our efforts to be completely
sure about our ethics before we press forward."

	****************************************

	If you have questions or comments about this LCMSNews release,
contact Joe Isenhower Jr. at joe.isenhower@lcms.org or (314) 996-1231,
or Paula Schlueter Ross at paula.ross@lcms.org or (314) 996-1230.

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