Medicine
and research: an historical perspective
By Rebecca Huber
As we enter a new century and the brave
new world of gene therapy, cloning and healing with stem cells, the religious
right and others are taking up the cause of what they call barbarism, radical
research and inhumane treatment of those who are unable to speak for
themselves. Historically speaking, it seems weÕve been here before, several
times!
At the end of the dark ages a radical
young artist and his helpers eager to correctly paint and draw the human body
would skulk through the night stealing cadavers for dissection and study. The
powers that were — namely the church — absolutely forbade anyone to
work with a corpse except to prepare it for burial.
Leonardo Da VinciÕs studies and
drawings of those corpses, the first true studies of the subject we now know as
anatomy and physiology, are still with us today. He likened the heart to a pump, the lungs to a bellows, and
the brain to a large switching center. His work, undertaken at great personal
risk, was invaluable in the understanding of the human body and its diseases.
The early Christian church discouraged
this kind of study and the formal practice of medicine with the avowed
intention that man was imitating Christ by healing the sick. They believed that
sickness was the work of the devil or demons and only prayer was to be used for
healing. Any interference such as herbal medicine was viewed as blasphemy and
would only suppress the soulÕs journey to its due evolution. They claimed the
end result would find man turning away from God and the church and looking only
to himself and his abilities for healing and salvation.
During this time there was an attempt
to destroy all forms of healing and suppress the ancient knowledge of herbs and
natural medicine. But truth cannot forever be suppressed and manuscripts were
secretly passed from one generation of healers to the next.
Herbs were hidden amongst the
vegetables in gardens of monasteries. Some became famous for their beautiful
gardens, which were always located close to their charitable hospitals for the
poor and needy who seemed to miraculously stay well while others dropped dead
around them.
Around the same time, devastating
plagues wracked Europe. Leprosy, The Black Death, and Cholera killed about one
quarter of EuropeÕs population. These infectious diseases were finally looked
upon for what they were — ignorance and a serious lack of knowledge about
cleanliness and hygiene. Since cleanliness was considered next to Godliness the
existing doctrine of allowing illness to follow its natural course without
interference lost favor.
At great cost and personal sacrifice,
the wars of the last century brought phenomenal advances in surgical
techniques. Imagine being a surgeon in a MASH unit faced day after day with
healthy young soldiers whose bodies were blown to smithereens and would die
unless you improvised, added to, or rewrote the existing medical books. I canÕt!
I heard a medical ethicist talking
about the issues of stem cell research and cloning the other day on NPR who
seemed, at least for me, to put stem cell research into perspective. He likened
an embryo to a set of blue prints. The house isnÕt built, the foundation hasnÕt
even been started, itÕs just blue prints. ItÕs up to us what we do with them.
The questions facing us will be difficult ones. The answers will
not come easy but we cannot stop the research any more than the church of
centuries ago could stop what they must have thought was radical and morally wrong.
Let us at least keep an open mind and see where this brave new world takes us.
Till next time, Rebecca.