A Scientific Challenge for Ethicists on Life Matters

By Rabbi David Eidensohn

President Bush has revealed his position on stem cell research. Is it ethical to produce human cells and use them as tools or studies? President Bush said, "Let's try it on a limited and controlled basis, and see what happens." At the time time, on Thursday, Aug 9, 01, two state courts ruled on matters of life and death. A California court ruled that it is forbidden to remove the feeding tube of a conscious person, even if they are unable to communicate or have any normal social or personal function. On the other hand, a Florida court ruled that it was permissible to remove the feeding tube of a woman in a coma many years, despite the claim from her parents that she can recover, and does somehow communicate with them. Presidents and judges now have to rule on matters of life and death, despite the paucity of precedent and proof to inform them.

Who is the expert on life? Is it the doctor? Doctor's begin their practice with fully developed humans, not cells. Biologists deal with cells, but have no expertise to inform us on ethics. We therefore must invent the "ethicist," a person who may have read a few books about ethical problems, has some intelligence and probably a scientific background, and pretend that this solves the problem. It doesn't.

On June 28, a British researcher visiting CalTech, Dr. Sam Parnia, released a study on near-death experiences. It proved, scientifically, that some people whose hearts stopped, who were dead on the operating table, whose brains without blood had no function, knew what the doctors were saying after they had died. Their souls had fled the body, but still knew what the doctors were saying. The conclusion was that "consciousness, or the soul, keeps thinking and reasoning even if a person's heart has stopped, he is not breathing and his brain activity is nil." (Reuters) This scientific proof of the soul should shock the scientific world. It should make everyone get up and re-think the atheistic bent of the scientific community. Here we see that there is more than the blood and the brain. If so, life has a new dimension, and the ethicists better learn about it.

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