Evolutionary Medical Ethics

Ezekiel 34:4
“The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up [that which was] broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.”

A professor of medical ethics used an old evolutionary myth to support the removal of organs from a baby born without a brain. The girl’s parents wanted to donate her organs for transplant while she was still alive so that the organs would be healthy and usable. A circuit court judge, however, noting that the child was still alive, refused to allow the taking of any of the child’s organs vital for life.

In support of taking the child’s organs, Yale professor of medical ethics, Dr. Robert J. Levine, said, “Our brain stems do not differ substantially from the brain stem of a fish.” He added that the child has “more in common with a fish than a person.” These comments reflect a discredited evolutionary theory. The theory holds that in passing from fertilized egg to birth, the child goes through the evolutionary steps that led up to humans.

Did the infant have more in common with fish than humans? While the unfortunate infant had only a brain stem, every bit of genetic information in the tissue was fully human. That brain tissue operated human organs within a human body. No fish brain in the world has either of those characteristics.

Does what you believe about origins matter? Fraudulent evolutionary science leads us to a steep and slippery slope that cheapens human life, which has been created by God.

Prayer:
I pray, Father, that You would look upon our society and its treatment of its weakest members with gracious eyes. Equip Your people with the wisdom and resolve necessary to turn our nation back to the road that protects the lives of its most helpless members. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Notes:
“Parents Fought to Donate Organs of Anencephalic Newborn.” Minneapolis Citizens Concerned for Life Newsletter, April, 1992, p. 2. Illustration: Brain stem from Gray’s Anatomy.