Something on my Facebook wall got my attention this morning. It seems I missed the exciting first round and came in on the end of the fight. Earlier this year a group called Children of God for Life instituted a boycott of PepsiCo for alleged use of embryonic stem cells in its flavor research. Pardon my gruesome thought, but I pictured ground up babies in my Pepsi, not unlike the collagen scare a few years ago.
My first thought was that this is another melodramatic hoax fueled by mindless Internet forwarders and Facebook posters. So I did what I usually do when I smell fish: I went to Snopes.com. I found that the tangents people have taken off on (like my baby flavoring nightmare) are completely unfounded. The issue is too complex for the simple minded, but since I respect my readers' mental powers, I will summarize what I think has happened.
PepsiCo contracted with a company called Senomyx to research ways to enhance flavor using less sugar, salt and MSG. These are goals almost everyone can support. What came to light earlier this year and caused all the stir is that Senomyx had used a test agent which had come from a strand of DNA taken from an embryonic kidney in the 1970's. No embryonic cells went into any Pspsi products, and no embryonic cells were used by the firm PepsiCo hired to do research.
What did happen is that one piece of human embryonic DNA was used over forty years ago to start a stem cell line which has prospered into "workhorses of cellular biology," according to Forbes' Michael Herper in a Snopes report on the issue. So the sacrifice of one embryo years ago led to the creation of a research tool which has been used regularly in the medical field, and now surfaces in a commercial application. As Herper points out, "No new fetal tissue has been used; the use of this cell line isn't leading to new abortions." In fact, the cells themselves are no longer human; they are genetically engineered tissue which sprang from a bit of human DNA.
No one is more disgusted by abortion and the toll of human lives taken than I am. If some one wants to boycott PepsiCo for funding Planned Parenthood or paying for abortions in its employee health coverage, I can understand. But to imply that all research which has even the remotest link to human cells is evil is going too far. By that reasoning we would have to be against organ donation (I know some Christians are.) By that reasoning we would have to shut down all research that uses any form of human cells, adult or embryonic (Say goodbye to all those wonder drugs we use so freely.) By that reasoning medical schools should not use cadavers to teach anatomy. Etcetera ad infinitum.
We are sometimes forced into dark places "that good may come," to borrow a line from Edith Wharton. I understand the need to close doors that might lead to new incentives to harvest embryonic cells. But in this case, the "damage" is long done, and only good may come. I see the use of genetically engineered material as an opportunity to create life from death. Not to stretch our spiritual mandate too thin, but is that not what we are called to do every day in this death dominated domain we inherited from our proto-parents?
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