As I found my seat in the ornate East Room of the White House, memories flared. I had been in this room hundreds of times during the years I served President Nixon. Today I was here for a much different reason: To hear President Bush speak about human cloning.
I confess to having become somewhat jaded; America, I thought, had become so post-Christian that I would never again hear an American president explicitly embrace Christian teaching on a profound moral issue. President Bush proved me wrong, and in the process, I was given a remarkable example of God's sovereignty.
Standing at the podium, surrounded by people in wheelchairs, President Bush described the great advances in medicine—the cracking of the genetic code and potential victories over feared diseases. But then came a warning.
"As we seek to improve human life," he said, "we must always preserve human dignity. Advances in medical technology must never come at the expense of human conscience. As we seek what is possible, we must also seek what is right, and we must not forget that even the most noble ends do not justify any means."
As I listened, my spine tingled—and not only from the President's inspiring words. Across the aisle I spotted ethicist Nigel M. de S. Cameron, whom I met 20 years before when he was a freshly minted Ph.D. running a study center in Scotland. We became friends, and I soon discovered his keen interest in bioethics.
At that time, few people even knew what the term meant, or thought about genetic engineering or cloning. For activists, abortion was the life issue. Over coffee one evening in Edinburgh, Nigel told me bioethics would emerge as the moral issue of the new millennium. He was so certain of this that he helped found the world's first bioethics journal, which began to awaken the Christian world. Nigel was like a sentry on the forward outpost, spotting the real enemy: the prospect of technology unleashed from moral restraints.
Eighteen months ago Nigel became dean of the Wilberforce Forum, Prison Fellowship's worldview policy group, and immediately set out—working with Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), and others—to build a broad-based coalition. Gazing around the East Room, I realized many guests were there through Nigel's efforts.
There must have been many times over the years that Nigel became frustrated, wondering if he was wasting his time discussing an issue that seemed remote to so many. But here he was today listening to the most powerful man in the world articulating, in the manner of a moral theologian, the case he had long fought for.
My eye then fell on another guest: Joni Eareckson Tada. As a teenager, Joni dove into shallow waters in Chesapeake Bay, tragically breaking her neck. Doomed to a life of quadriplegia in a wheelchair, Joni might have been consumed with self-pity. Instead, Joni is one of the most cheerful people I've ever known.
When President Bush finished speaking, he stepped down from the podium, embraced Joni, and kissed her. At that moment, it struck me that one reason God may have allowed Joni's tragedy was this moment of witness—not only to the President, but also to the world. Joni is the Christian counterpoint to Christopher Reeve and other celebrities who make emotionally appealing but dangerously utilitarian arguments for human cloning. Joni opposes the taking of human life for medical research, even if it could lead to relief for her suffering. She understands that abortion, euthanasia, cloning, and embryonic stem-cell research are all related to one great question: What does it mean to be human?
That single hour in the White House provides a dramatic answer to two frequently asked questions. The first is the age-old challenge: how a loving God can allow such suffering. Certainly, there is sin and suffering in our fallen world—from our own making. But as Joni's life and witness prove, God redeems that suffering.
The second question is one I hear with increasing frequency in our post-Christian culture: What difference can one person make? The problems are so huge; we feel helpless, and so we do nothing.
That response is a cop-out. Nigel did not think that way, nor did Joni. They pressed on, confident that a sovereign God would use them, as indeed he has. They remind us that God sets each of us in a particular time and place for a precise purpose. We must strengthen our resolve, no matter the obstacles, to fulfill that purpose in a fallen world.
Christianity Today's Life Ethics archive and sister publication Books & Culture's Science Pages have more perspective on bioethics.
Nigel M. de S. Cameron is director of the Council for Biotechnology Policy at the Wilberforce Forum. In 1995, he wrote Christianity Today's "Doctors Under OathModern medicine has misplaced its moral compass. Can Hippocrates help?" He also interviewed Leon Kass, head of the President's Council on Bioethics for the June issue.
Article continues below
Joni Eareckson Tada is the founder and president of Joni and Friends, an organization accelerating Christian ministry in the disability community.
Previous Christianity Today coverage of bioethics includes:
Opinion Roundup: 'Only Cellular Life'?Christians, leaders, and bioethics watchdogs react to the announcement that human embryos have been cloned. (November 29, 2001)
Charles Colson was the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, an outreach to convicts, victims of crime, and justice officers. Colson, who converted to Christianity before he was indicted on Watergate-related charges, became one of evangelicalism's most influential voices. His books included Born Again and How Now Shall We Live? A Christianity Today columnist since 1985, Colson died in 2012.
While we pray for peace, we need moral clarity about this war.
As my doubts about his teachings grew, so did a secret fascination with Jesus.
Christian artists work at the intersection of music and climate change.
