Touchstone Magazine - Mere Comments: The Missouri Synod Gives Embryos the Benefit of the Doubt
David Mills @ Touchstone Magazine (Roman Catholic) has an interesting commentary on the LC-MS Commission on Theology and Church Relations document outlining the care of pre-birth babies.
I think Mr. Mills hits the issue on the head. While seemingly supporting the viewpoint of life beginning at conception, the document actually neither approves or disapproves of in-vitro fertilization and rather avoids the discussion of when is life fully life.
It does implicitly support a differentiation between the life of an embryo and a born man.
Human embryos, beginning with conception, are set on a course of development that leads continuously to an unfolding of a unique human life
This use of modern scientific language in the face of the Biblical understanding is disappointing. In addition it establishes a dangerous precedent.
I think the more interesting discussion is the one which the document seems to have left in question. "Is in-vitro fertilization God given, proper, right, etc?" I have serious reservations... If one agrees that life begins at conception then we have hundreds of thousands of unborn children in test tubes in these labs, sometimes disposed and sometimes not. Medically they are considered waste but are they? According to the press release author the document leaves this open to further scientific discussion.
"The approaches proposed thus far do not succeed in providing clear and convincing evidence to lift the burden of proof that lies on those who propose to destroy embryos," the report concludes.
I'm going to have to go through my stash of other CTCR documents and see if these questions are addressed elsewhere.
