Essential Beliefs - Abortion, Assisted Reproduction And The Human Embryo

Things are changing as far as medicine and our health services are concerned. This morning I want to focus on one controversial area. The old Hippocratic Oath said:

"I will give no deadly drug to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to procure abortion."

And Christians from the earliest days of the Church's history were known for their concern for life and their opposition to abortion. They believed that both life-giving and live-taking were divine prerogatives. After all Job said, as we often say at funeral services:

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.

But then came the David Steel Abortion Act of 1967 and all that has changed. Now there are nearly 200,000 abortions a year in the UK with the vast majority being for social reasons. John Stott, a remarkable Christian leader who is not noted for intemperate comment, says this about modern abortion in the West:

"Any society which can tolerate these things, let alone legislate for them, has ceased to be civilized. One of the major signs of decadence in the Roman Empire was that its unwanted babies were "exposed", that is, abandoned and left to die. Can we claim that contemporary western society is any less decadent because it consigns its unwanted babies to the hospital incinerator instead of the local rubbish dumb."

But things are changing again. Christian doctors and others are beginning to say, "No!" in greater numbers to abortion. A survey entitled Members' Attitudes to Abortion was conducted by the Christian Medical Fellowship in the late 1990s. To the question, "When does human life have full value?" about 70 percent of the Christian student doctors answered "at fertilization", whereas less than 40 percent of Christian practising doctors gave that answer. But these changes are not occurring just among Christians in the medical profession. Up to a third of all newly-qualified UK doctors are choosing not to perform abortions. However, there is still a great deal of confusion among Christians and particularly in the areas that relate to the beginning of life.

This morning, then, I want to map out fairly simply, I trust, from the bible what I have called ESSENTIAL BELIEFS to help us have some bearings as we think through these things. And these are not just academic issues. At every level people are involved. Often there are human tragedies - one way or another. But in Christ there is guidance, forgiveness and hope.

So to help us I want us to look at Hebrews 2.10-18. And I'll be using the following headings this morning as we go through this passage. First, "GOD FOR WHOM AND THROUGH WHOM EVERYTHING EXISTS" that is a quote from verse 10; secondly, "HE ... SHARED IN THEIR HUMANITY" that is a quote from verse 14; and, thirdly, "HE IS ABLE TO HELP" and that a quote from verse 18.


First, "GOD FOR WHOM AND THROUGH WHOM EVERYTHING EXISTS" - verse 10.

Look at the whole of that verse:

In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

There is a modern medical ethics text book that begins with the need to respect a person's desire for "autonomy" - for self-determination and for freedom from control. Well, if that means freedom from almighty God, that is what the bible calls "sin". By contrast, the great Christian tradition of medicine begins with a biblical panorama of history, such as you have got here. And there are always four aspects to that panorama and you have got them here.

First there is the creation ...

God, for whom and through whom everything exists.

And as you read about it in Genesis 1-2 man is the pinnacle of creation. Chapter 1.27 says:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

That threefold create gives a Hebrew superlative, underlining that man (the male and female) is the high point of the created universe. But there are a growing number who say that they do not think that human beings are so special after all. Jim Howe, the doctor in the Tony Bland case, was asked, "does a young baby have value as a person?" He replied:

"A new-born baby probably doesn't ... One of the things that irritates me about people who believe in the sanctity of life is that they don't extend that sanctity of life to higher primates and dolphins and so on ... They think that we have a God-given sanctity of life. Well, I don't believe in God, so I don't see any divine imprint."

But it is because men and women are created in God's image that they have value and life is sacred and so they can claim protection. If you turn on to Genesis 9.6 you come to these words:

Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.

Nor does it matter that the person is unintelligent, deformed, incapable of looking after themselves, very young or very old. The value in the life is not in what it can achieve, but by virtue of its creation as human and in the image of God - not why what it does, but by what it is. Genesis also says that man has dominion over the earth and the natural order. And that is why the Christian tradition has given rise to modern science including medical science. And the Christian needs to get involved with all good modern developments. James 4.17 says:

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.

But James talks about what "ought" to be done. For not everything that is possible is permissible. There are limits. There comes a point where a legitimate taming of God's world becomes an illegitimate tampering with God's world. As the great Christian ethicist Paul Ramsey once said: "the good things that men do can be made complete only by the things they refuse to do." That is because men and women are fallen, and not all is good. Some things are bound to be impermissible. So the first aspect of this biblical panorama of history is creation.

Secondly, in this biblical panorama there is the fall, or the need for "salvation" that verse 10 speaks about. You see, God gives us freedom, but with his limits. God said to the man in the Garden of Eden, (Genesis 2.16) "you are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil." Sin in the Garden of Eden was to overstep those limits. You have that same overstepping of limits later on in Genesis 11 with the Tower of Babel. Technology was there given free reign and there was a desire to play God and reach up to heaven - with dire consequences.

Thirdly, in this biblical panorama there is the coming of Christ. Since there is a need of salvation for man's self-centredness and sin, there is need of a saviour - Jesus - who is described here as "the author" of salvation. Chapter 1 of this epistle says he came fundamentally to deal with sin. His life's work is there summarized as "providing purification for sins." The bible says that unless human sin is dealt with there will be no hope. All other solutions are merely sticking plaster solutions. Yet it is amazing how many people involved in the health industry believe that they can solve the world's problems through medical advance. I was reading about the Managing Director of a Japanese high-tec company that was developing brain scanners. And this man's aim was the prevention of war, no less! He said: "What causes wars and conflicts between people is the malfunctioning of the human brain. By understanding how the brain works we can bring world peace." How foolish! Why? Because, if nothing else does, the fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ proves his divine claims and, therefore, that his analysis is right and this businessman's is wrong.

Fourthly, in this biblical panorama there is the goal of "glory". Verse 10 opens with the words "in bringing many sons to glory" - and this is heaven. The bible makes it quite clear that this life is not all there is. And when you have that perspective it makes a great difference if you are a doctor. Listen to John Wyatt, a Christian Consultant neonatal paediatrician and a Professor in neonatal paediatrics in London. He wrote:

"A fellow paediatrician, with whom I worked closely over many years, once said to me: 'you know, it's easier for you than it is for me, John. When I'm looking after a dying baby, I'm sending them into the ground, into oblivion. When you're looking after a dying baby, you're sending them to heaven.' True - I can dare to act about withdrawing intensive treatment in a dying baby, or recognizing when medical treatment is futile and meddlesome because of the Christian hope."

That biblical panorama of the creation, the fall, the coming of Christ and heaven is so important for developing a medical ethics. We must now move on to my second heading.


So, secondly, "HE ... SHARED IN THEIR HUMANITY" (v 14)

Look at verses 14-17a:

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil-- 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way.

We are told here in more detail about Christ's coming - or his "incarnation".

First we are told "how?" he came. Verse 17a says he was "made like his brothers in every way." We know he was without sin and so spiritually perfect, but physically, in terms of "flesh and blood, he ... shared in their humanity" (verse 14). The incarnation was possible - for God the son to come in human form - precisely because man was made in God's image. And God becoming man in embryo form surely means that the embryo bears that divine image.

Nor does it matter what the embryo looks like. The embryo may not look like the average undergraduate. Hadley Arkes, the ethicist, says it may even look like a tadpole, but it is never equivalent to one:

"That apparently formless mass [says Arkes] is already 'programmed' with the instructions that will make its tissues the source of specialized functions and aptitudes discriminably different from the organs and talents of tadpoles. This 'tadpole' is likely to come out with hands and feet and with a capacity to conjugate verbs."

Perhaps someone has been asking, "Why should you consider the embryo sacrosanct? Why shouldn't you have abortion on demand? Why make all this fuss?" There are many reasons. But surely the crucial argument is that the incarnation of Jesus Christ began not at his birth that we celebrate at Christmas, but at his conception. As we say in the Apostles' Creed, "he was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary". And Jesus came to reveal to us not only God but also man. He is the true man. And his history on earth began with a miraculous conception as a human embryo.

Nor is this just a New Testament understanding. The moral status of an individual begins with conception according to the Psalmist. So David said in Psalm 51: "surely I was ... sinful from the time my mother conceived me."

That is why Christians, for example, have deep problems with the advances in assisted reproductive techniques when it is standard to produce surplus embryos after women have been super-ovulated. Then the best embryos are selected, and the spare embryos have three fates - to be frozen, experimented on, or thrown away. If you are dealing with a bit of tissue - so what?

But if you are dealing with a human embryo, that amazingly bears the divine image because of its genetic make up that stamps it as human and not animal, that is so different. And because Jesus Christ was once "like his brothers in every way" and so his history had an embryonic phase - you stand in reverence before that new life, however, tiny. For it is not a tadpole - it is a human being in embryo form. So that is how Jesus came - he was "made like his brothers in every way."

But "why?" did he come. Look at verse 14 again. He came, first,

so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is, the devil.

The devil is characterised by death. So where you have a culture of death, you have something devilish. Are not many of these things we have been talking about moving in this direction? By contrast Jesus Christ is characterized by life - supremely manifested in his Resurrection which proved the victory of the cross and that something cosmic had happened at calvary. But you say, "can you believe in a devil in 2002?" Yes! It makes good sense to say that the sum total of evil in the world is more than the sum total of individual misdeeds. There is a superplus and that superplus is not an it - some force - but a he - some intelligent presence, but now a defeated presence. So Christ came first to destroy (or make inoperative) the devil.

Secondly Christ came, verse 15:

to free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Many are held in slavery by their fear of death. There are those who spend large sums to preserve themselves in a state of suspended animation in California, to wake up when medical technology is better than it now is. How foolish.

In God's providential care of his creation, human beings are not meant to live for ever in their degraded fallen state. God has limited human life span not just as a curse but out of his grace. But the fear of death is real for many. Why? because they don't fear death so much as what might be beyond death - judgment by almighty God. But Christ frees us from that fear of death by dealing with sin on the cross of calvary.

Look back to verse 9 of this chapter. We are there told that Christ "suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone." He died on the cross, in your place and mine bearing the guilt of our sins. Why not trust him this morning if you have never done so, to bear your sin. That is the only way to be really free from the fear of death. And remember, no one is too bad to be forgiven or too good not to need to be forgiven.


I must conclude, finally, with the words "HE IS ABLE TO HELP" (v 18)

Look at verses 17 and 18:

For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. {18} Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Christ is now risen and reigning. Verse 3 of chapter 1 says:

After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

He is now our "merciful and faithful high priest in service to God". If you read on in this epistle you will discover all the nuances of that. But what you can see from these verses are two things. One, that Christ makes atonement for sins. He gives forgiveness. And unlike the OT priesthood and sacrificial system, Christ's was final and complete forgiveness. You can be forgiven once and for all. Oh, yes, once accepted by God you must confess and seek forgiveness for the ways you still fail him. But you are now in a new relationship.

But that new relationship won't always be easy. Standing up for Christ can be hard. My wife [a senior paediatrician and interviewed earlier] didn't say it, but she has been threatened for the stand she has taken [over homosexual adoption] with the loss of part of her job - the part she knows about and has published articles about. But when you are in that sort of situation and suffering for Christ, there is this wonderful promise of help. That is the second thing. Maybe it is hard for you in a different way. Perhaps you are infertile and have not accepted some modern treatments that you think might solve all your problems but you see them as morally wrong. And it is desperately hard. But because Christ himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those [now like you] who are being tempted. He helps them stand firm and resist temptation. And he helps those who fail and don't stand firm as he offers his forgiveness. But as he once said to a woman caught in adultery and after he had forgiven her, he still says, "go and sin no more."