Why I’m not doing the Ice Bucket Challenge
The ALS Association has raised nearly $80 million via the Ice Buck Challenge. It has gone viral with people posting selfie videos on FaceBook and Twitter dousing themselves with buckets of cold water and nominating their friends, family and acquaintances to do the same to raise money for research to cure Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord resulting in paralysis and usually death over a period of two to five years, although some have suffered ALS for up to 20 years. This is a horrible disease that needs to be cured, but I will not be participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge.
The ALS Association does much to find a cure for ALS by supporting many types of research projects. Its funding of human embryonic stem cell research, however, throws more than a cold bucket of water on my enthusiasm to participate in its fundraising effort.Embryonic stem cell research requires the destruction of a fertilized human embryo. Federal funding of such research is banned, but other funding is still legal. Hence, the Ice Bucket Challenge. Fetal stem cells are from aborted babies. Umbilical Cord, Placenta and Adult stem cell research does not require the destruction of human life and results have been positive (i.e., curing some forms of cancer) while embryonic or fetal stem cell research has not been so productive.
ALS Senior Vice President of Research and Development Lucie Bruijin, PhD, in her August “Primer on Stem Cells” writes: “…recently scientists have shown that they are able to isolate and propagate human embryonic stem cells in culture….The discovery that human embryonic stem cells can be isolated and propagated in culture with the potential of developing into all tissues of the body is a major medical breakthrough. However it has raised a great deal of ethical questions. Adult stem cell research is important and should be done alongside embryonic stem cell research as both will provide valuable insights.” Bruijin’s favoring of embryonic stem cell research by her own words on the ALS website is a deal killer for me.
Now, please, I am not judging you if you have participated. I’m just saying that for me, I can’t do it. There are many verses in the Bible against the taking of innocent blood and choosing life. One of my favorites is Deuteronomy 30:19: “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” A warning is found in Jeremiah 2:34, “Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.” It seems to me that the shedding of innocent blood can come of no good and is more than, as Bruijin puts it, an “ethical” question.
Have a Blessed and Powerful Day!
Right on, Rick! I’m no doing it either.