British Scientists Tout Future Cure for Blindness with ESCs: What Would You Do If It Really Works?

The headline of this story from the Times of London—“Blind to be Cure with Stem Cells”—is really putting the cart before the horse—it hasn’t even been tried yet, after all. But such hype is par for the course. From the story:

British scientists have developed the world’s first stem cell therapy to cure the most common cause of blindness. Surgeons predict it will become a routine, one-hour procedure that will be generally available in six or seven years’ time.

The treatment involves replacing a layer of degenerated cells with new ones created from embryonic stem cells…This week Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical research company, will announce its financial backing to bring the therapy to patients. The treatment will tackle age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of blindness.

We have seen such stories planted in media before. But I think this one is notable because private money is being put into the development of the treatment—venture capital has been, heretofore, notably scarce in ESCR. Thus, I think it is fair to say that when a very big drug company puts money into a potential therapy, there is at least a decent chance it will work.

And that brings up an important question for those who oppose ESCR. What if it works and bending our ethical views could lead to our seeing again, but staying true to our beliefs would mean continuing vision impairment? Being forced to choose between better health and proper ethics is a foreseeable consequence of opposing ESCR, fetal farming, therapeutic cloning, and the like.

Some people have already grappled seriously with this question. Mark Pickup is an extremely close friend. He suffers—literally—from advanced and progressing MS, and so this issue is not merely an interesting intellectual exercise to him. Mark has written very clearly that he would refuse to receive ESC therapy, even if it meant foregoing a total cure, because to do otherwise would violate his Catholic faith and implicate him in the termination of a human life. From his column:

Here’s the problem for someone like me: I do operate with moral constraints and conscience. My Christianity demands it. I cannot participate in, or take advantage of, therapies developed using embryonic stem cells. It is unacceptable for my life to get better at the expense of another.

Non-embryonic stem cell sources are fine. If, however, the therapy involves the killing of another human being in the form of an embryo then I must forego treatment, accept life in a wheelchair, and whatever lies in store for me with an aggressive, degenerative disease…

Is the allure of an embryonic stem cell therapy tempting? Absolutely! But I must resist and, with God’s help, I will resist. It is better to lose the use of my body than to lose my humanity.

I strongly believe that using human life—even at the most nascent stages—as a mere natural resource is profoundly wrong, not only because of what it does but what it will lead to once society accepts using living human beings as mere instrumentalities. I hope if I am ever faced with this dilemma that I would have Mark’s courage and ethical integrity to refuse to be complicit in such wrongdoing—but one never knows until the crisis comes.

This is why it is far easier to simply go along with the utilitarian flow. People who do never find themselves in such a pickle.

No one said that living an ethical life was easy. But as these issues play out, now is the time to think very deeply about the many “what ifs” that may confront us in the years to come: Because pondering these matters well before the time of testing offers the best chance to develop the courage and fortitude to make the right choice.