When a controversial bill promoting embryonic stem cell research ignited debate in the Massachusetts legislature this spring, the first day of Senate testimony spotlighted two diametrically opposing views. Biotech and medical professionals argued that this research holds the key to treatments for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other diseases; their opponents charged that the removal of embryonic stem cells destroys potential human life.

Missing from the polemics was a third view—one informed by Jewish law—that would address both sides' concerns. On the second day of testimony, Dr. Joseph B. Stern, assistant professor of Jewish law, presented that view at the behest of the National Center for Jewish Policy Studies at Hebrew College. Contacted the day before by the Center in response to a query from the Boston-based Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, Stern worked until three in the morning on a Jewish legal argument supporting the bill.

Stern was an obvious choice. A Jewish legal and medical ethics scholar for more than 25 years and long-time Hebrew College faculty member, he specializes in the application of Jewish law to genetic research and clinical practice. Stern is also an effective communicator. Dressed sharply in a navy suit, his penetrating eyes framed by wire rims and bushy white eyebrows, Stern deftly shifts between cogent talmudic arguments and illuminating parables.

When Stern presented his case to the Senate committee, he based most of his remarks on passages from the Torah. "Christian conservatives opposed the bill on the grounds that an embryo is a person with moral standing," he explained. "There was no voice that could challenge their principled assertions from a biblically-based perspective."

In his testimony, Stern acknowledged the apprehension of those who fear that stem cell research will diminish the sanctity of human life.

He then cited three doctrines derived from Torah that obligate individuals to save and preserve human life at all costs: the biblically-based requirement that each person must do whatever is necessary and possible to protect body and mind from possible harm; Maimonides' formulation, extrapolated from an explicit biblical law, that physicians are specially commanded to take all needed measures to help "restore" the "lost life," or health, of a fellow human; and the fundamental principle in Jewish law, based on Torah, that requires each individual to prevent any action that could endanger or compromise another's life.

However, Stern maintained that the obligation to save and preserve life does not extend to "protecting and preserving the nonviable and potential life forms in a petri dish."

Quoting Rabbi Elliot Dorff, vice-chair of the Conservative Movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, and author of several publications on the issue, Stern noted, "Since genetic materials outside the uterus have no chance of developing into a human being, they have even less legal status in Jewish law than zygotes and embryos in the first stages of gestation, when the Talmud classifies them 'as if it were simply water.'"

On behalf of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, Rabbi Benjamin Samuels of Congregation Shaarei Tefillah in Newton also testified in support of the bill. "There is a consensus in the Jewish community in support of embryonic stem cell research," says Stern.

After passing both the Massachusetts House and Senate by a strong two-thirds majority in early April, the bill faced stiff opposition by Governor Mitt Romney.

Meanwhile, Stern's testimony took on new life beyond Massachusetts. Thanks to an Internet search, a staffer for the legislature in Texas—one of a number of states setting stem cell research policy—requested a copy for circulation. The full text can be viewed at hebrewcollege.edu/stemcell [PDF - 36k].

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