Medical breakthroughs abound in this day and age. I have never understood why some religions have tried to stand in the way of man's creative thinking. Many medical discoveries have enhanced, and enriched our lives in ways our ancestors would never have imagined. New technology has not only allowed us to live longer lives, but allows for a greater quaility of life. My belief is that God has created us with the ability to think and to solve problems for the benefit of humanity and for God's glory.
Unfortunately for us, even our God given gifts can be corrupted. Our culture generates our natural and sinful propensity for personal greatness. Recently there have been two news stories that epitomize this dilemma of trying to get ahead at the expense of humnaity's benefit.
The first example is of the Korean doctor who lied about the number of stem cells he had available for research. Even more troubling to me is the instance of a doctor who faked data in a research project for oral cancer.
People who suffer serious illnesses depend on cutting edge research to improve the quaility of their lives. Faking research such as this can put people's lives on the line. Drug companies who develop and market drugs put so much pressure on its scientists to perform. The cost of developing new drugs skyrockets and one mistake can put a multi million dollar project into a spiral of doom causing the company and its stockholders to lose money.
The thing is, I fully understand the motivations of these doctors. In high school, I had to do a science project. I started out with the best intentions on a project that would chart the growth rate of plants when left alone to grow versus plants that were talked to every day. It really was stupid of me to choose a project such as this. Even my friends will attest to the fact that I don't give much care for the plants that I have and the only kind of plants that survive at my house are the ones that grow on their own. Two weeks after I planted the beans I was using, both sets of plants died. My project was due soon....what would I do? Get an F on the project? Of course not! I lied...I made up the whole project and in the process got a B+ on it.
To this day, I still feel the guilt of this deception. The good news is that I learned from it. Two years later, I failed miserably at another attempted project (this time making donuts). Learning my lesson, I brought my hard as a rock donuts to class to show that I had tried to complete the project, even though I had failed. Guess what...I got an A anyway... just for trying.
Perhaps our society needs to stop placing so much emphasis on the bottom line and instead begin to reward people for their honest efforts to discover things. Maybe then the temptation to take a wonderful gift from God and to use it for evil would one day be overcome.
God, Thank you for the grace you have given to us. It is the grace that forgives us of our wrong doing and at the same time turns us around and encourages us to walk in new directions..no matter how difficult they might be. AMEN
