Jesus of Nazareth and Stem Cells

On a flight from Chicago to Cleveland, I found myself seated next to a wonderful woman who asked me what I did for a living.  I replied that I was a professional speaker and that I had just been interviewed for a TV show where we discussed the issue of stem cell research.  Well, Jessica gave me the "stem cell stare" and murmured "Oh, that's nice."  Because I have been subject to that look hundreds of times before, I asked her if she knew anything about stem cell research and she gave me the obligatory answer, "Yes, a little."  I then asked this young woman — who, I might add, was 29 years old, college educated, informed, articulate, and on her way to a number of business appointments with some very high profile customers — if she had stem cells in her body.  Her answer was (you guessed it), "I don't know."

It finally dawned on me that the ignorance of stem cells was even worse than I had thought, and believe me, I know it is bad.  No wonder BOGO Wines has been a monumental struggle.  People don't even know the basic biological fact that we all have stem cells, from the moment of our conception to our death.

This brings me to the title of this article: Jesus of Nazareth and Stem Cells.  The Incarnation of Jesus is a keystone of the Christian faith.  The process of Jesus becoming fully human is stated in the Bible when John says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).  John goes on to reinforce this point when he says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father" (John 1:14).  Furthermore, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that Jesus was both fully God, as well as fully human.  Therefore, because Jesus was fully human, He had stem cells!

Shortly after Jesus Christ, King of Kings, was conceived, tiny stem cells carefully began to divide into all of the specialized tissues of His body.  As tissues and organs began to take shape, more specialized adult stem cells housed themselves in His heart, liver, skin, and bone marrow.  These adult stem cells inside the body of Jesus would be responsible for repairing and refurbishing His body throughout his 33 years on earth!  So, can stems cells be bad?  No way!  Stem cells are nature's building blocks that repair and refurbish our bodies as we go through life.  All people of all ages have stem cells.

So, please let everyone know that we all have stem cells!  Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different types of cells.  They serve as a repair system for the body in order to replenish cells as they die off.  When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential to either remain a stem cell or to become a more specialized cell, with a specific function, such as a muscle or liver cell.

Stem cell-based therapies propose to treat human medical conditions by replacing cells that have been lost or damaged through disease or injury.  Unlike an organ transplant, where a damaged or diseased tissue is removed and then replaced with a comparable organ from a donor, stem cell therapies involve integration of replacement cells into the existing tissues of the patient.

The moral and practical problems arise when researchers attempt to treat conditions with human embryonic stem cells.  Human embryos must be destroyed in order to obtain these cells.  This means you have to kill a human being.  Also, treatment with embryonic stem cells is futile because scientists are unable to predict or control the ways in which these cells divide — the result of this uncontrolled division is deadly, cancerous tumors.  Furthermore, the body of a patient will invariably reject embryonic stem cells in the same way the body rejects a virus or transplanted organ.

Adult stem cells, on the other hand, do not require the destruction of human embryos, and will not be rejected — because they come from the patient's own body.  Thus far, over 70 different diseases and conditions (www.stemcellresearch.org/) have been treated with adult stem cells (without any moral complication).  Adult stem cells are hard at work, rebuilding, re-furbishing and saving lives in practical and ethical ways!