Stem Cells - Brutes or Angels: Human Possibility in the Age of Biotechnology - page 58

go on record in support of those persons who wish to enhance medi-
cal research by donating their early embryos remaining after in vi-
tro fertilization (ivf) procedures have ended . . . for esC research
provided that
1. these early embryos are no longer required for procreation by those
donating them and would simply be discarded;
2. those donating early embryos have given their prior informed con-
sent to their use in stem cell research;
3. the embryos were not deliberately created for research purposes;
4. the embryos were not obtained by sale or purchase.
(The people of the United methodist Church 2001)
The islamic tradition also uses ensoulment as the single criterion for
conferring full moral status to developing human beings; islamic jurists
place the event either at 40 or 120 days after conception. in either case,
islam considers our ability to use esC technology to relieve suffering as
God-given and therefore justifiably good.
in Judaism, the moral status of the embryo is elevated after 40 days of
development, but not to the level of ensoulment, the time for which is con-
sidered unknowable except by God. Beginning on day 41, the embryo is as-
signed a moral value equivalent to that of a major body part of the mother.
The Talmudic basis for this and the Jewish position on esC research was
articulated in 2001 by rabbi elliot Dorff of the University of Judaism in
los Angeles. he wrote that God requires that “we seek to preserve human
life and health . . . and have a duty to seek to develop new cures for hu-
man diseases” (Dorff 2001). referring to surplus embryos resulting from
ivf procedures, rabbi Dorff contends that “when a couple agrees to do-
nate such embryos for purposes of medical research, our respect for such
pre-embryos outside the womb should certainly be superseded by our duty
to seek to cure diseases” (2001).
Departing from vatican authority, salesian priest, theologian, and phi-