Sárospataki Füzetek 14. (2010)
2010 / 1. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Rusthoven, James J.: Mit jelent embernek lenni a technika korában? Református keresztyén megközelítés.
What it means to be human in our technological age? worldviews and perspectives as equally valid as guides to living. At the same time, this perspective has recently begun to open doors for the acceptance of religious beliefs for presentation and discussion in public, including some bioethical discourse. It is a time for courageous expression of religious beliefs in language that is understood but that does not conceal the true meaning of those beliefs. Reformed Christians are boldly moving forward with the formulation and expression of their beliefs in politics, education, ethics, and other disciplines. I think the time has come in medical ethics for the development of Christian ethics that openly welcomes the deepest beliefs of all who engage in public moral discourse. At the same time, such an ethic must stand firm on commitments to biblical directives for confronting the ethical concerns and choices generated by novel biotechnologies. Being able to apply a new technology does not automatically provide a moral right to apply it regardless of moral consequences. The focus of ethics is determining what ought to be done. It is our entrusted obligation as Christians to reflect on how to biblically respond to the use of new technologies based on who we were created to be and how we should live out our relationships with other human beings based on our relationship with God. Earlier this year, a clinical trial in humans was approved by the Food and Drag Administration in the United States in which cells derived from embryonic stem cells would be injected into spinal cord-injured patients in the hope that new nerve cells with replace the destroyed ones. However, new ethical concerns about all pluripotent stem cells, including fetal stem cells found in the tissues of aborted fetuses, have also recently intensified. A month after the announcement of the opening of the stem cell clinical trial, a young boy was diagnosed brain and spinal cord tumours. He had been treated for four years with fetal stem cells from several donors in an effort to correct a genetic disease that caused brain degeneration 19 It was discovered that the tumours originated from the donated fetal stem cells that had been given to him as treatment for the genetic disease. This case supports ongoing concerns that pluripotent stem cells like embryonic cells, umbilical cord- derived fetal stem cells, or possibly even embryoid cellular constructs like those described above, have the potential to transform into malignant tumours. Now that clinical studies in human beings using cells derived from embryonic stem cells have begun this year, such risks raise additional ethical concerns about stem cell research, particularly for regulatory agencies that will have to decide if such treatments can ever become safe for public use. 19 Amariglio, N. A. Hirshbery, B. W. Scheithauer, et al. Donor-derived Brain Tumour Following Neurla Stem Cell Transplantation in an Ataxia Telangiectasia Patient Public Library of Sdence Medicine, Feb 17, 2009 idői: 10.1371 /journal.pmed. 1000029) SÁROSPATAKI FÜZETEK 65
