Letter: Medical advances resisited on religious grounds

Monday, Dec. 3, 2001 | 8:39 a.m.

The opposition to stem cell research and the cloning of human embryos on religious grounds follows a familiar historical pattern. New medical advances and even the practice of medicine itself have historically been feared by religious people as being against the will of God.

In the 19th century, inoculation against smallpox was opposed on religious grounds. Ministers joined in a manifesto proclaiming that vaccination against smallpox was "endeavoring to baffle Divine judgment." So, for example, in 1885, when there was an outbreak of smallpox in Montreal, Catholics, believing smallpox to be the result of sin, refused to be vaccinated. They died.

Anesthesia, too, was opposed on religious grounds -- at least when applied to women giving birth. After all, the Bible clearly says that God willed that women should experience pain in childbirth. What could be worse than defying God's will?

Most Christians today (except the most fundamentalist among them) have no religious objection to doctors treating the sick, to dissection, to vaccination nor to anesthesia. Early religious objections to all of these practices have not withstood the test of time.

I suspect that generations from now, people will look back with wonder at the religious objections being made today to stem cell research and embryonic cloning. I suspect, too, that these new fields of research will proceed despite the religious objections and will bring about improvements in health that future generations will take for granted.

REINALDO SALESANSKY