By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
Not since the discovery of antibiotics to fight infections and transplants to replace failing organs has medicine been poised to take such a vast quantum leap than with the advent of stem cell cloning.
It’s still in the experimental phase now, but in the near future, said Rabbi Michael Broyde, an expert and scholar in Jewish law, the desperately ill will not have to die while waiting for a compatible kidney, and those with heart disease can simply get a new heart.
“While this sounds very far-fetched, you should know that there’s a research lab in Palo Alto that is already growing kidneys with stem cells,” Broyde told a crowd of nearly 100 people at Congregation Ezra Bessaroth in Seattle. “Stem cell research is the Holy Grail that a lot of people are working on. It will become much easier to replace body parts.”
The rabbi is a law professor at the Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, and a professor of Jewish Studies at the Donald A. Tam Institute of Jewish Studies, also at Emory.
He has published over 75 books and papers on Jewish legal subjects and serves as an arbitrator for the largest rabbinical court in America, the Bet Din of America. Broyde has also served as the chair and executive board member of the Jewish law section of the Association of American Law Schools.
Religious values and ethical codes, he said, are solidly behind this technology that will change the way medicine is now practiced. By using a patient’s unique genetic material or DNA, researchers are already cloning stem cells in the hopes of growing “custom” organs for dying patients.
“Stem cells aren’t people, and stem cell research doesn’t come anywhere near the prohibition of homicide,” said Broyde, who reiterated the traditional Jewish view that a fertilized embryo is not considered viable life until after 40 days, and even then, there is disagreement among rabbis and scholars.
“We start by permitting that which is only minimally necessary, then we reassess, and we see where we should go from there,” he said.
Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that have not yet been designated by the body to become a particular organ in our bodies. The signal or “code” that tells a stem cell which organ it will become still remains a mystery to researchers, however.
Along with a process called cloning, where scientists inject the neutral stem cell with an individual’s unique DNA, the technique gives doctors the ability to grow organs that are compatible with a particular patient.
“So, if I have a heart attack, not only will they consider a heart transplant — they will grow a heart for me” said Broyde. “But the heart they will grow for me will be identical to the heart that I have genetically. There’ll be no rejection and no need for an organ donor.”
The lecture on stem cell research is the first in a series of four presentations scheduled for the summer learning symposium at the Seward Park Orthodox synagogue.
Titled “A Matter of Life and Death,” the three future lectures feature topics that include “Termination of Life Support and Assisted Suicide”; “Artificial Insemination, Surrogate Parenting, Organ Donation and Transplantation”; and abortion.
“We tried to put together a series of topics that would be interesting, and what would be more interesting than life and death?” said Hank Finesilber, head of the Adult Education Committee, of the series.
“Our goal is to present the traditional Jewish legal principles that govern the resolution of these very personal and difficult life dilemmas that many or all of us will face in one context or another.”
Salomon Cohen-Scali, Ezra Bessaroth’s rabbi, agreed.
“For those of us who are Orthodox, we have an obligation to know what the halachah is so that we know what the appropriate thing is to do in these circumstances,” he said. “For those of us who are not…whether you’re Reform, Conservative, or whatever you might happen to be, or, maybe because you’re not Jewish at all, we’ve invited clergy from all faiths and segments of Judaism for free, because while they may not feel bound by these legal principles, certainly the nuance that is halachah would give insight.”
According to Broyde, the controversy that exists today around cloning these stem cells is more heated than the argument about using them, because according to other religious views about these types of cells, researchers are manipulating life.
The Christian view of stem cells taken from embryos discarded during the in vitro fertilization process is that they are early-stage human life. According to this view, when researchers take these stem cells, they are terminating a life.
For Jews, this kind of research as well as all medicine that results in saving lives is the ultimate definition of tikkun olam, or repairing the world, according to Broyde. In Judaism, God wants humans to participate in the process of creation.
“We look at technologies and we say, ‘Do these technologies do good or do bad?’” Broyde said. “If these technologies do good, then the Jewish tradition says we should invest in them… Our role in this world is to look at technological advances and use them productively.”