Torch, Spring/Summer 2007

continued on page 11 First of all, destruction of excess embryos is not inevitable, since their fate is entirely up to the couples who produced them. They could eventually be implanted, or perhaps even be adopted by another childless couple, an idea that is growing in popularity. And if embryos are persons, then morally they should be protected. After all, killing a human being is a moral evil. We cannot justify destructive embryo research based on a vague utilitarian calculus that they are going to be destroyed anyway. We can do better morally. Men and women of good faith from all worldviews must continue to debate these matters. In the end, our very human nature is at stake. Christians believe that all human beings are created in the image of God. We should think long and hard before we casually destroy our fellow image-bearers. Dr. Dennis Sullivan serves as director of Cedarville University’s Center for Bioethics and is also a professor of biology. Before coming to Cedarville in 1996, he served as a medical missionary in both Haiti and the Central African Republic. Sullivan received his B.S. from Youngstown State University, his M.D. from Case Western Reserve University, and an M.A. in Bioethics from Trinity University. A member of the American Medical Association, the Christian Medical Association, and the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, he has been honored as a Diplomate by the American Board of Surgery (1985) and as a Fellow by the American College of Surgeons (1996). A Bioethics Timeline 1968 Harvard University recommends brain death standards for organ transplantation. 1971 Judith Jarvis Thomson writes “A Defense of Abortion,” an influential essay which defends abortion even while assuming the personhood of the unborn. 1972 Details of the Depression-era Tuskegee Syphilis Study, one of the greatest ethical breaches of trust between physicians and patients in a U.S. clinical study, are brought to light. 1973 The Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision allows unrestricted access to abortion before viability. 1976 By a ruling of the New Jersey Supreme Court, Karen Ann Quinlan is taken off life support. Hers is the first major “right-to die” case involving persistent vegetative state (PVS). Quinlan lived for nine more years after being removed from life support. 1978 Louise Joy Brown, the first “test tube baby,” is born. 1981 AIDS is first reported in the U.S. 1990 Nancy Cruzan, who is in a PVS, dies after a contentious “right-to-die” case before the U.S. Supreme Court. 1992 The Planned Parenthood v. Casey U.S. Supreme Court decision overturns the viability portion of Roe v. Wade , extending the right to abortion to any time of pregnancy. 1996 Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, is born. 1997 Oregon voters approve the Death with Dignity Act. 1999 Dr. Jack Kevorkian is convicted for the voluntary euthanasia of a patient with Lou Gehrig’s disease after assisting in the suicide of almost 100 others. 2001 President Bush permits limited government funding of embryonic stem cell research, using only embryos that had already been destroyed. 2003 The Human Genome Project is completed, marking the first complete draft of the sequence of human DNA. 2003 The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, a federal ban of intact dilation and extraction as an abortion procedure, is passed. 2005 Terri Schiavo dies after her feeding tube is removed by ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court. In this “right-to-die” case, the diagnosis of PVS was hotly contested. 2007 The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Partial-Birth Abortion Ba Act. Spring-Summer 2007 9 T