[1] In a meeting I was recently asked what I thought about Wittenberg’s statement of institutional values. All I could think to say was “Values are good. These seem fine.” (It had been a long meeting.) I suspect that some readers may have a similar reaction to the proposed social statement “Caring for Health: Our […]
[1] On the contrary, it is one of the consolations of the coming kingdom and expiring time that this anxiety about posterity, that the burden of the postulate that we should and must bear children, heirs of our blood and name and honour and wealth, that the pressure and bitterness and tension of this question, […]
[1] In 1973 I began a year of Clinical Pastoral Education at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois. The director of the program, Rev. Ronald Leslie, told our group of CPE residents that if we spent a quarter of the year at the Alcoholism Rehabilitation Center (as it was called at the time), it […]
[1] Twenty years ago, bioengineers fiddled with plastic and wires and transducers while building gizmos. Today, a bioengineer is more likely to be tinkering with cells and chromosomes and genes while deciphering the stuff of life. [2] Gregory Stock’s book “Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future” preaches the promise of bioengineering-longer life and health spans, […]
December 2002 (Volume 2 Issue 12)
[1] Stem cell research and somatic cell nuclear transfer (i.e. therapeutic cloning) were hotly debated in Sweden during autumn of 2001. Two years earlier, in 1999, the Swedish Medical Research Council had initiated an internal discussion, which resulted in a proposal for policy guidelines on the topic of stem cell research. In the year 2000, […]
January 2002 (Volume 2 Issue 1)
[1] Our heated summer-time debates over human embryonic stem cell research were all but forgotten until we were jolted over the sleepy Thanksgiving weekend by an announcement from researchers at Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), a small biotech company in Massachusetts. On TV screens, in the pages of “U.S. News & World Report,” and online in […]
January 2002 (Volume 2 Issue 1)
JLE conducted an internet interview with James Houck, a participant in a consultation held by the ELCA January 25-26, 2002 on faith and science. Houck, an active Lutheran, has been instrumental in the ELCA in bringing resolutions concerning faith and science to synod assemblies and ELCA Church Council. [1] JLE: Tell us about your backgrounds […]
December 2001 (Volume 1 Issue 4)
[1] The recent announcement by Advance Cell Technology seems to confirm what most people thought was sadly inevitable when almost five years ago a sheep named Dolly was created with cloning techniques. Cloning humans would be attempted, and it was. This effort – unremarkable as it was in its so-called success – is given the […]
December 2001 (Volume 1 Issue 4)
[1] What do I think about the first successful (albeit short-lived) cloning of human embryos for the purpose of deriving stem cells? Readers with a low tolerance for ambivalence are advised to ‘quit’ now because my answer will neither condemn nor celebrate the news from Worcester. At the risk of making matters worse I must […]
October 2001 (Volume 1 Issue 2)
[1] Stem cell technologies represent a promising new area of medical research. The prospective benefits are astounding, with experiments demonstrating possibilities that just five years ago were science fiction. The current quest is for pluripotent1 stem cells that can generate any type of tissue needed by medical therapy. One exciting mouse experiment injected bone marrow […]
