Sacred body? Stem cell research and human cloning

Ecumenical Review, The, July, 2002 by Heinrich Bedford-Strohm

The wisdom in these words could not be more up to date. When human beings try desperately to overcome their finiteness and use any means to do so, they miss the fullness of life that God has promised them. Placing the cherubim at the entrance of the garden Eden was an act of God's love and affection towards the human being. Our accepting the finiteness of human life when the price for its extension is too high is a consequence of God's loving will in creating us: God's will for us to be truly human.

NOTE

(1) For this topic see also my comments on ecumenical thought on creation: H. Bedford-Strohm, "Schopfung", Okumenische Studienhefte, 12, 2001, pp. 174-78.

Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, after teaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York and at the University of Giessen is now a minister in the Bavarian town of Coburg and is teaching at the University of Heidelberg. He is a member of the social affairs committee of the Protestant Church in Germany and a member of the WCC working group on bio-ethics.