Could Christians use treatments produced by embryonic stem cellresearch?

As unlikely as this is in the medium term, it’s worth asking. The truth is, because the issues are complex, our moral evaluation will need to be on a case by case basis. But we can lay out some basic concepts.

In principle it is possible to redeem objects and tools that have been associated with sin:

• Lamech’s descendants’ technology (Gen 4:21)

• Israel’s plunder of the Egyptians (Ex 3:22)

• The use of ‘foreign’ wisdom in Proverbs and Greek poets in 1 Corinthians 15:33 and Acts 17:28.

• Wealth of the nations entering the New Creation (Rev 21:24)

But a key distinction is between formal and material sin:

Formal sin: cooperation in a sinful action, in such a way that ‘it could not be done without their participation.’ This is obviously always wrong.

Material sin: perform an action that in itself is not evil, but which then helps an individual or organization perform an evil action

• If the evil action is an immediate consequence – pretty much the same as formal sin

• If the evil action is distanced – e.g. promoting further stem cell research, we might need to weigh things up more carefully.

So… if a new treatment involved the need to destroy more embryos (and at present this would be the case because treatments must be genetically specific to avoid tissue rejection) this would be formal sin and therefore unacceptable.

If a new treatment did not involve formal sin, other key questions to bear in mind would be:

• Was this the result of destroying embryos in the distant past (and cell lines have been independently developed) or last week? i.e. in what real sense am I connected to the original sin?

• Will not having this treatment really affect the action of scientists?

• Will this give the impression to others that I endorse wrongdoing?

• I can’t go against my conscience