Table Of ContentJohnMetina
Can science discern the difference
between human tissue and human life?
Science, especially genetic engineer-
ing or molecular biology, unintentionally
provokes moral questions. "It is ex-
tremely important," says Medina, "to
understand that science has limited
powers of observation. When science is
forced to address questions it is inca-
pable of answering, it confuses just
about everyone."
As Medina leads you in search of the
outer limits of life into the sometimes
bizarre, invariably fascinating world of
molecular biology, you will...
• discover cancer cells that, unlike
normal cells, can be immortalized;
• learn about species of females that
propagate without males;
• discover an organism that starts its life
as a single-celled creature, joins with
like organisms to form a larger one
when food is scarce, then breaks apart
to become independent once again.
BOSTON
PUBLIC
LIBRARY
John Medina
IK
OLIVER
NELSON
A Division of Thomas Nelson Publishers
Nashville
To my mother
for giving me the keys
to so many doors
and
to my wife
for giving me the courage
to walk through them
Copyright © 1991 by John Medina
All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use
or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews
or articles.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Oliver-Nelson Books, a division of Thomas
Nelson, Inc., Publishers, and distributed in Canada by Lawson Falle, Ltd., Cam-
bridge, Ontario.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Medina, John, 1956—
The outer limits of life : a molecular biologist looks at life and the implications
of genetic research / John Medina,
p. cm.
ISBN 0-8407-9114-3 (hardcover)
1. Life. 2. Body, Human—Religious aspects—Christianity. 3. Body, Human.
4. Life (Biology) 5. Biology—Religious aspects—Christianity, 6. Genetics—
Research. 7. Bioethics. 8. Christian ethics. I. Title.
BT696.M435 1991
113'.8—dc20 91-16702
CIP
Printed in the United States of America.
1 2 3 4 5 6 — 96 95 94 93 92 91
Contents
Foreword v
1. A Matter of Life and Breadth 7
Tumors and Other Strangers, 7; On the Matter of Loving
Your Pet Cat, 9; Better Clones and Gardens, 12
2. Have You Driven a Ford Lately? 15
Still Life, 15; The Psychological Plazards of Eating Alpha-
Bits, 30; Heartbreak, 35
3. Circular Seasoning 40
Why the Mantis Is Praying, 41; The Bugs in the Eiffel
Tower, 43; High Interest Clones, 50; The Life of the Party,
56; Do Artificial Flowers Grow Best in Artificial Light? 60
4. The Concepts of Conception 63
Multiplication by Division: The Strange Math of Human
Reproduction, 65; Return to Gender, 71; Slaving Over a Hot
Ovum, 81; It Is More Blessed to Conceive, 87; Missed
Conceptions, 95
5. The Breed of Life 100
Gross Encounters, 102; Parthenogenesis: the Ultimate Me
Generation, 106
6. Womb with a View 112
Breeding Between the Lines, 114; Gene-Spirited, 120; Fluid
Dynamics, 128
7. If Looks Could Thrill 131
Leave It to Cleavage, 133; Molecular Inner Tubing, 147;
Dilutions of Grandeur, 159; Putting In an Appearance, 167
8. All Thought and Bothered 170
The Tragedy of Anencephaly, 172; Donor Organs, 175; The
Lord of the Dance, 180; All Thinks Considered, 194;
Summarizing These Thoughts, 207
9. Smart Imitating Life 211
A Brain on Our Resources, 213; The Magic Fruit, 222; Gland
Over Fist, 229; Difficult Reviews, 237
10. Knot Within Reason 241
Fears of Influence, 242; Dark Side of the Tomb, 252; A
Down to Worth Idea, 258
11. Did Jesus Die for DNA? 261
Pushing and Loving, 265; Worth Defects, 271; The Problem
with Gray Matter, 274
Epilogue: Putting Things in Perspective 284
Foreword
John Medina has, I believe, written a most important book.
Why is it important? First, because his subject is vital. Life issues—
abortion, euthanasia, and now the harvesting of fetal tissue and organs—
have earthquake status in today’s Western world, for here the tectonic
plates of historic Christianity and post-Christian secularity grind against
each other in direct and traumatic collision. Dr. Medina is a molecular
biologist, which means that everything involved in cell research—bio-
chemistry, neurology, genetics—has become his business, and he can
bring them together in an authoritative and comprehensive way. The
Outer Limits of Life is a systematic, thorough briefing on the relevant
scientific facts, and as such is invaluable.
Second, Medina’s standpoint is honest. When he is sure of something,
when he is not sure of something, and when he feels torn between his
scientific responsibility and his Christian calling, he says so. His book is
not propaganda (there is plenty of that already, on both sides); rather, it
is a reflective report from the frontier, where cell research has been going
in at a great rate for the past two decades and seems likely to continue
just as fast. The integrity of the entire discussion is outstanding.
Third, the professor’s style is delightful. He has a great gift for nontech-
nical exposition: his reader-friendly way of simplifying things has resulted
in a book, on themes usually cloaked in dark jargon, which any reader
from nineteen to ninety can follow and digest. Even 1, a longtime refugee
from science, who thankfully turned his back on chemistry, physics, and
biology at age thirteen to study Greek, was able to read it with pleasure
and understand it without pain; and if I could do that, so can you.
Fourth, John Medina’s stance is robustly and clearheadedly Christian.
He does not offer instant answers to all questions in the life-issues debate
(that, indeed is one aspect of his wisdom), but he has a Bible-based, well-
digested way of facing up to them all, laying out the facts one must know
about them, and squelching shoddy and unworthy arguments about
them. His attitudes are a model of how a scientist who is also a Christian
should think his way through things.
So I gratefully salute a very fine and fruitful piece of work.
J. I.
PACKER
v
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2017 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation
https://archive.org/details/outerlimitsoflifOOmedi
