NSW stem cell legislation

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
22 Jun 2003

This is a welcome development, especially for New South Wales, which has never had any legislation in this area. We are moving from a situation where anything goes to one where research on embryos is governed by a certain number of restrictions, and an outright prohibition on reproductive cloning.

If there is a problem with the proposed legislation, it is not in what it prohibits. It is in what it still permits. While it will put in place important minimum requirements, it still allows for too much destruction of embryonic life. It is important to remember that we were all embryos once.

It is well known that Christians oppose destructive research on human embryos. At the time of the public debate about last year, a prominent public figure in New South Wales suggested that this is because Christians think suffering is a good thing; a way of atoning for original sin.

This is a very strange take on the Christian attitude to suffering. It is also wrong. Christians oppose destructive embryo experimentation for the same reason that many non-believers do: because it entails the destruction of human life. No religious insights are necessary for this conclusion. It is a matter of scientific fact.

When it comes to caring for those who suffer Christians have a pretty good track record. If you compare the contribution Christians and governments have made to care and pain relief for the suffering over the centuries, there's no doubt that government comes a very distant second, even well into the twentieth century.

It is precisely because of the concern Christians have for those who are suffering in our society that Church leaders like myself have raised concerns about the destruction of human life at its earliest stages.

The argument that seems to persuade many people over destructive embryo experimentation is that surplus embryos are going to die anyway, and it makes sense to use them if we it helps find cures for terrible diseases.

Leaving aside the fact that it is adult stem cells which have so far offered the most promise for successful medical applications, this claim overlooks the vital distinction between actively killing someone and letting them die. We are all going to die. No one has the right to kill us for this reason.

When it comes to healthy adults we know that there is a great gulf between killing and letting die. This important principle does not change just because we are dealing with very young or very old life.

Jesus did not say anything about stem cell research to guide us on this issue. But he did show a strong preference for those people who were somehow considered not fully human. You don't have to be a Christian to find this preference compelling.