Jewish Medical Researchers Violate Torah Principles

Can Jewish medical researchers, Dr. Lawrence Goldstein and Professor Irving Weissman, both highly successful, eminently respected and impressively credentialed, sleep soundly?

Dr. Lawrence Goldstein is the Scientific Director of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine and the Director of the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center located in La Jolla, CA. 

Professor Irving Weissman is the Director of the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine located in Stanford, CA.

Dr. Goldstein sits on the National Institutes of Health’s Human Fetal Tissue Research Ethics Advisory Board, Fifteen members comprise the Board. Eleven oppose the use of embryonic stem cells and aborted baby body parts in medical research. Dr. Goldstein is one of the remaining four who endorses the use of embryonic stem cells and aborted baby body parts in medical research.

The advisory board was established in February 2020 to review NIH research grant applications and research and development contract proposals involving human fetal tissue. They met on July 31. 2020 to hear oral presentations prior to submitting recommendations to HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

Professor Irving Weissman presented an argument in favor of using aborted baby body parts for research, stating that,“Human fetal tissue research is the gold standard.”  

Somewhere in the scientific minds of these two Jewish men resides a faint memory of their experience at Sinai, where they bowed in awe and wonder before the Almighty, They accepted the obligation of protecting human life - made in His image, precious and miraculous. They accepted God's moral parameters, clearly and beautifully declared in Psalm 82:3-4, "Give justice to the weak and fatherless!. Uphold the rights of the wretched and poor! Rescue the destitute and needy; deliver them from the power of the wicked!” 

Jeremiah 22:3 reminds us of these guidelines, This is what Adonai says:“Do what is right and just; rescue the wronged from their oppressors; do nothing wrong or violent to the stranger, orphan or widow; don’t shed innocent blood in this place.

Drs. Goldstein and Weissman belong to that elite group of scientists who detach ethics from Torah, thereby, avoiding insomnia producing moral dilemmas. Their brilliant intellects, absorbed with analytical studies, genetic research, grant proposals, academic honorarium and reimbursement packages, fail to recognize that as Jews, it is abhorrent to justify engaging in research practices that exploit one group of human beings for the benefit of another group, reflective of Nazi era research on Jewish death camp victims. 

When will these gifted men stop defying Torah principles and quit participating in this century's greatest human rights violation? When will they put their intellectual prowess into unlocking the secrets of induced pluripotent stem cells and other innovative methods to acquire the tools needed to continue their research efforts?

When the truth penetrates their busy mind and the still small voice of their conscience wakes them up from a sound sleep.

Cecily Routman

May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen. 

Please help us awaken Dr. Goldstein and Dr. Weissman. Contact them to share your concerns and outrage. 

Dr. Lawrence Goldstein - lgoldstein@health.ucsd.edu Office Phone: 858-534-9702 University of California, San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive, #0695 La Jolla, CA 92093-0695

Professor Irving Weissman - irv@stanford.eduOffice Phone: 650-723-6520                                                      Lorry I Lokey Stem Cell Research Building 265 Campus Drive West G3167                                         Stanford, CA  94305-5461