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In one sense, we can be grateful for Peter Singer. He does what Francis Schaeffer urged us to make secularists do—that is, take their reasonable-sounding philosophies and carry them to their logical and often preposterous conclusions. I've discovered that this tactic is the best way to penetrate the postmodern fog. If biblical revelation is true, any proposition that is inconsistent with it can be shown to be irrational.

Life-and-death issues like stem-cell research won't go away. If we don't make the case against utilitarianism, policies that today make most of us recoil may one day, as our moral sensibilities become anesthetized, elicit nothing more than a shrug. And then, as the philosophy of "the greatest good for the greatest number" takes hold, the Christopher Reeves of the world will be in peril—and so will the rest of us.

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A 2000 Christianity Today editorial, "Thus Spoke Superman: Troubling language frames the stem-cell debate," also referenced Christopher Reeve's stance on bioethical research.

Colson has addressed bioethics in previous CT columns including:

Undaunted | Bioethics challenges are huge. But so is God. (July 31, 2002)

The New Tyranny | Biotechnology threatens to turn humanity into raw material. (Oct. 5, 2001)

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 Oath | Modern 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.

Previous Christianity Today coverage and commentary on bioethics includes:

Limited Cloning Ban Disappoints Prolife Groups | President's Council on Bioethics recommends a four-year moratorium on research cloning. (Aug. 19, 2002)

Defender of Dignity | Leon Kass, head of the President's Council on Bioethics, hopes to thwart the business-biomedical agenda. (June 7, 2002)

Goodbye, Dolly | We need nothing less than a total ban on human cloning. (May 15, 2002)

Weblog: 'All Human Cloning Is Wrong,' Says Bush | Public is 4-to-1 against all human cloning, but Senate is evenly split on comprehensive ban. (April 11, 2002)

Books & Culture Corner: "Daddy, What Is the Soul?" | Does the church have an answer? (December 10, 2001)

Books & Culture Corner: 'We Now Know' | The boast of imperial science. (December 3, 2001)

Opinion Roundup: 'Only Cellular Life'? | Christians, leaders, and bioethics watchdogs react to the announcement that human embryos have been cloned. (November 29, 2001)

Weblog: Human Cloning's 'Success' | Human embryos cloned for 1st time. (November 26, 2001)

Books & Culture Corner: "24 Cow Clones, All Normal" … | Oh yes, and a few cloned human embryos that died. (November 26, 2001)

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February 2003, Vol. 47, No. 2