Have Stem Cells Become Passé?
An update on stem cell research June 15, 2010 I last wrote an update on stem cell research in December. On that occasion I explained that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had announced the...
Healthcare Bill
Charles J Chaput, Archbishop of Denver: Catholics, Healthcare, and the Senate’s Bad Bill
Have Stem Cells Become Passé?
An update on stem cell research
By Father Thomas Berg
June 15, 2010
9:00 am EST
Fr. Thomas Berg reviews
Neither Beast nor God: The Dignity of the Human Person
By Gilbert Meilaender,
Encounter Books, 180 pages, 2009.
SOME MONTHS AGO, the ethics committee on which I sit at the Empire State Stem Cell Board took up a discussion of what “respect for the human embryo” might mean in the current context of embryo-destructive stem-cell research. At one point in our exchange, I asked my colleagues whether there is anything the committee would agree should never be done with human embryos. One colleague conceded he would not want them served in an upscale restaurant as a kind of caviar; another, that she would not want them used for cleaning floors or for powering cars. As to the prospect of using them to develop cures for disease, however, none of my colleagues would object.
Read Father Thomas’s articles
on National Review Online:
Most recent:
Scrambled Ethics
On May 12, my colleagues on the ethics committee of New York’s Empire State Stem Cell Board voted overwhelmingly to recommend that state funds be awarded to researchers who have paid women for their “time and burden” in the retrieval of their eggs for research purposes.
If adopted by New York’s full stem-cell board, the measure will mimic the long-established practice in the assisted-reproduction industry of paying up to $10,000 per retrieval. New York would become the first state in the union to allow such reimbursements to eggs-for-research donors.
When Does Human Life Begin? A Scientific Perspective
By Maureen L. Condic
Westchester Institute
White Paper, October 2008
Resolving the question of when human life begins is critical for advancing a reasoned public policy debate over abortion and human embryo research. This article considers the current scientific evidence in human embryology and addresses two central questions concerning the beginning of life
2010 Archive
- The Difference God Makes
- How are Christians to Engage the Culture?
- In Vitro Fertilization - Why Not?
- The Long Ascent to Calvary
- Healthcare, Human Life and America
- Why I Didn’t Give Up Facebook for Lent
- Our Sex-Crazed Culture
- The Unimportance of Sex
- Recovery in the Big Easy
- Catholic Teaching on Assisted Nutrition and Hydration
- Haiti
- What’s Wrong With Us?
- Challenging Totalitarianism in 2010
A Call of Christian Conscience
Christians, when they have lived up to the highest ideals of their faith, have defended the weak and vulnerable and worked tirelessly to protect and strengthen vital institutions of civil society, beginning with the family.
Signers of the Manhattan Declaration are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are:
- the sanctity of human life
- the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife
- the rights of conscience and religious liberty.
Read the Manhattan Declaration
Sign the Manhattan Declaration
Announcement: Westchester Institute announces appointment of Dorinda Bordlee and Nikolas Nikas as Institute Fellows.
book corner: Fr. Thomas Berg reviews in First Things the book Neither Beast nor God: The Dignity of the Human Person By Gilbert Meilaender, Encounter Books, 180 pages, 2009.
Audio Segment: Father Thomas Berg's Appearance
on EWTN's The World Over, originally aired on 7/24/2009
Video Segment: Fr. Thomas Berg interview on CNN: Lou Dobbs, “Public Money for Women’s Eggs” July 9, 2009
Radio Segment: Fr. Thomas Berg discusses New York's cash-for-eggs scheme on New York's WNYC
Press Release: NY Stem Cell Board Agrees to Pay State Money for Women’s Eggs
White Paper: When Does Human Life Begin? by Maureen L. Condic
Comments: “Are Brain-Dead Patients Dead?” by E. Christian Brugger
Book Corner - Fr. Thomas reviews Camelot and the Cultural Revolution: How the Assassination of John F. Kennedy Shattered American Liberalism By James Piereson
Sign up to receive Fr. Thomas’s weekly e-column, With Good Reason
In Focus: Egg "Donation"
Special Resource: Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs)
The Westchester Institute is in strategic alliance with Bioethics Defense Fund (BDF). BDF is a bioethics law and policy organization whose mission is to advocate in the courts, legislatures, academia and the media against the human rights violations of abortion, human cloning, destructive human embryo research, euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide. Click on the link above to learn more.
Q. Chris, tell me about yourself and your family – any children or hobbies?
A. When not teaching philosophy, I keep busy chasing my six kids around the house. I have 2 boys and 4 girls ranging from 13 years to 4 months old. Despite it always seeming to be monsoon season in my house, they are the delight of my life. In my other spare moments, I enjoy chatting with my wife on the porch while sipping a glass of wine, reading, and for physical activity, I study Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
The country is undergoing an important and democratically-based debate over health care reform. “In Focus” brings a spotlight to the topic of health care reform with a variety of meaningful articles and sources. Westchester Institute Senior Fellow E. Christian Brugger offers a thoughtful introductory commentary on health care reform.
Guiding Principles for the Healthcare Debate (Public Discourse)
Real Health Reform by Yuval Levin (Weekly Standard)
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Website on Health Care Reform:
Keeping the Patient in the Equation: Humanism and Health Care Reform (New England Journal of Medicne)
Perspectives on Health Care Reform Audio Segment (Acton Institute) Part I Perspectives on Health Care Reform Audio Segment (Acton Institute) Part II
