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the 41-year-old brain-damaged woman who became the centerpiece of a national right-to-life battle. While my stand on this issue is clear (notwithstanding the legal issues, withholding the basic necessities for life"like food and water in order to end a persons life, brain dead or not, is inhumane), I do not want to debate Terrys case here. But I do want to lift up just how important the issue of medical ethics has become. I should also point out, as Terris case revealed, how confused and divided our country and leaders are on issues of bio-ethics. What a complex medical world we now live in! Most Americans hardly understand cloning; cybernetics; cybergenetics; nanotechnology; stem cell research; and organ transplantations. It is little wonder, then, that our ethics and clinical practice in this arena is so muddled. So, right at the outset let me say that this whole area of bio-medical ethics is troubling. Troubling because while I have no difficulty seeing the issue of abortion as bad, other issues dont seem to be that clear cut. At least not to me. And I suspect many of our readers are similarly confused "which is why we have decided to devote the next two issues of CCT to a discussion of this The greater our medical accomplishments and the more we are able to relieve human suffering, the more difficult it becomes for us to make ethical bio-medical decisions that are compatible with our Judeo-Christian values. There is no doubt in my mind that, on the brink of enormous new developments, we have reached an ethical crossroad. Medical research has begun to challenge our most basic understanding of what constitutes human existence. Do we sacrifice some emerging form of life so as to heal existing life? Do we ˜choose whether we want a male or female baby and thus take away natures randomness? Do we abort a fetus that has ˜bad genes to prevent that human being from some terrible disease and pain? Making ethical decisions that are ˜biblical is not as simple or straightforward as many people think. Discussions in the abstract take on a whole different meaning when these issues are actually faced by individuals and families under great pressure to decide and act. But we cannot and must not shirk our responsibilities here. It is because God thinks human beings are special that He expects us to treat human life as ˜sacred. In our post-Christian culture, many wonder what difference one persons voice can make in influencing the complex moral and ethical state we now find ourselves in. The problems are so huge that it is easy to feel helpless, and so we do nothing. But such a response is a cop-out. As Chuck Colson once said: œBioethics challenges are huge. But so is God. The moral quandaries and ethical issues we face as pastors and therapists are no less difficult, really. Whether faced with a dangerous client with whom we have to make judgments and interventions that may mean life or death to someone, to deciding whether or not a personal relationship at church is also a dual relationship professionally, Christian counselors need to continually update their knowledge and practice around counseling ethics. And since we have never addressed this topic exclusively in the 13 years we have published this magazine, it soon became apparent that two issues were necessary to adequately cover it. So that is what this edition and issue (13-1) of CCT are all about. Web counselor plays a vital role for the welfare of society. We have brought together an array of super professionals and had them tackle a slew of complex moral and ethical issues, if only to stir your attention to what is going on around us. They all remind us that God sets the standards by which we judge what is moral and ethical. I feel sorry for those cultures that are overly secular or whose religions have no basis upon which to build a moral outlook. But we are called to give an accounting of Gods moral expectations to the entire world, and each of us is in a particular place of influence, at this time, for this precise purpose.
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