Moy, A. (2020). Creating Catholic Regenerative Medicine Organizations in a Secular Biotechnology Field: A Physician-Scientist Experience. The Linacre Quarterly, 87(2), 218-222. https://doi.org/10.1177/0024363919890941
Moy A. Creating Catholic Regenerative Medicine Organizations in a Secular Biotechnology Field: A Physician-Scientist Experience. Linacre Q. 2020;87(2):218-222. doi:10.1177/0024363919890941
Moy, Alan. "Creating Catholic Regenerative Medicine Organizations in a Secular Biotechnology Field: A Physician-Scientist Experience." The Linacre Quarterly, vol. 87, no. 2, 2020, pp. 218-222.
Physician argues Catholics can succeed in biotech and stay Catholic
A Catholic physician-scientist argues in a personal essay that Catholics can succeed in biopharmaceutical work and stay Catholic, at the cost of sacrifice, risk and courage. The author reports that his adult stem cell company and nonprofit institute reached first-in-class milestones. He draws on founding both groups in Iowa.
Key Findings
The author left a tenured university post in 2005 to start Cellular Engineering Technologies, a company that makes adult stem cells. He funded the launch with his own personal wealth.
He reports that the company built the largest portfolio of adult stem cells anywhere. Over seventy scientific peer-review publications came from scientists who used its cell products.
He then founded the nonprofit John Paul II Medical Research Institute. Donations to the institute came from thirty-eight countries, and over 90 percent of donors live outside Iowa.
The two organizations coauthored a 2017 report on virus-free, oncogene-free iPSC and a 2018 follow-up on reprogramming cord blood and peripheral blood from patients with a genetic lung disease.
He describes grant rejections, including a private foundation's request to apply his method to embryonic stem cells, which he refused.
Interpretation
The paper is a personal essay by one author who founded both organizations and declares no conflicts of interest. The essay reports no study, data analysis or comparison group. The business milestones are the author's own account, with no outside source given. The moral positions come from Catholic teaching and biblical passages that the author quotes, and the essay addresses Catholic physicians and scientists. The author adds that biotechnology ventures carry high risk and that much more work remains.
RRM Context
Restorative reproductive medicine seeks the underlying cause of a reproductive problem and works with the body's own cycles. The essay joins a wider debate about clinicians whose conscience conflicts with employer policy. The author lists abortion, contraception and IVF among practices he says secular employers support. He describes this as a moral problem for Catholic clinicians.
Our editorial summary of this paper, not the article's abstract.
Abstract
One aspect of the progressive secularization of biotechnology is the use of the by-products from abortion and the use of human embryos. These morally illicit cells and tissue create a significant moral and economic challenge for Catholics at different stages of their career. A practicing Catholic physician or scientific professional will face the dilemma of how to reconcile their Catholic identity with their profession. While the Catechism is clear on what actions Catholics should not pursue, there has been less religious guidance on what activities Catholics should proactively pursue in their professional life to advance the Catholic culture. This essay will examine these themes through the lens of a true story of the author's experience in starting Catholic for-profit and nonprofit biotechnology organizations.
Summary
Abortion and the destruction of human embryos create a moral dilemma for Catholics at different stages of a physician or scientist's career. A practicing Catholic physician or scientist must reconcile their Catholic identity with their profession. While there is little professional guidance on how to advance the culture, Jesus says that one must take up the cross and direct their God-given gifts towards His name. The only way to succeed and thrive in a secular healthcare environment is to emulate Jesus by putting aside their own self-interest; pray for courage against ridicule; accept risk; and pursue scientific and medical excellence.
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