“Jesus said to the crowds: ‘This is how it is with the Community of God; it is as if a farmer were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow, but the farmer knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit.’”
Seeds grow as a power for life. The power of life is a mystery. We know not how life is first sparked nor sparked again and again. We are grateful recipients of a power gifted to us in the seed of life. How are we caring for the seed of life; those of the earth and of our own human bodies? A significant area of scientific research relates to seeds for the body, stem cells. Stems cells were first derived from human embryos in 1998 and subsequently grown in laboratories. Human embryonic stem cells are fascinating seeds of life. They can generate more cell types than any other cell type. Their great potency has them referred to as omnipotent or totipotent cells. Another type of stem cell is called pluripotent and can develop into all cell types within the body – organ, muscle, nerve – but not placenta. Another stem cell, multipotent can develop into a limited number of cell types in a particular lineage usually for purposes of repair or regeneration. Multipotent stem cell use is the most applicable and valuable as these seeds of life yield much fruit, for example, for spinal cord injury, bone fracture, and autoimmune diseases. Multipotent stem cell research is the least controversial of the seeds of life. Embryonic, or omnipotent, stem cell harvesting is the most controversial, though it need not be. Science is capable of generating embryonic or omnipotent stem cells independent of using aborted fetuses. That is the cause of the controversy. Currently, research institutes have contracts procuring embryonic cells from the babies aborted in Planned Parenthood clinics. The arrangement procures considerable plunder. One aspect of the plunder is derived from the research institutes ‘owning’ the seed of life cells they buy. Researchers put a money making patent on the embryonic cells at Columbia, Harvard, MIT, … However, their procurement and research is usually funded by the government, meaning from tax payers who rarely benefit from the cells compared with Big Pharma or Big Military. Scientists can save embryonic stem cells from our own birth placenta. But that means the cells would be ‘owned’ by us, with no patent rights and less money to embryonic stem cell plunderers. Research grants could still be accorded health care institutes but no longer would plunder be an element, for example, in prescription drugs such as sofosbuvir. U.S. taxpayers fund Gilead’s research at Emory University for the drug sofosbuvir with hepatitis C cure rates above 90%. But Gilead prices that drug at $1,000 a pill, $84,000 for a full course. Big Pharma plunderers, like Gilead, claim their medicines’ high prices are to offset research and development costs but that is untrue given their use of taxpayer funds. Another drug company, Moderna, received $2.5 billion from the US government to develop its vaccine. Moderna is still showing a profit near $8 billion with CEO Stéphan Bancel taking home near $13 million. Decisions to socialize that vaccine medicine enabled citizens to receive the vaccine free at its end point because they had already paid for it at its seed point. Still, vaccine companies lobbied hard for monopoly plunder and monopoly patent protection and against allowing poorer countries to manufacture or import generic versions. “The global system for funding drug development socializes the costs and privatizes the profits though a system of taxpayer-funded research, legal corporate tax havens, and intellectual property registrations to guarantee exclusive access to markets and to reduce corporate taxes.” (Treatment Action Group) This global system of capitalist plunderers of illness, inhibits health care for persons suffering from AIDS, Hepatitis, Malaria, Tuberculosis, and other illnesses. Given the system they operate, it cannot be asserted by research universities, Planned Parenthood, the military, nor the many companies that make up Big Pharma, that they are in awe of the mystery of life. They are not grateful recipients of seeds of life.
“Day…by day, I planted my seeds, of love, caring and compassion… Like the sprouting of the spring planting, so too, did my seeds begin to sprout. So too… did my seeds grow, in the richness, of the sunlight, of life and living. I sang amid the pine trees and danced beneath the stars, when my seeds of love… grew, and entered me, as the food from the field… The crop was rich, producing children, grandchildren and countless, loving memories. I received so much… so very much. … I shall remain forever thankful, for that which I have received.” (Seeds of Life – Joseph Fazio)
Prayer: Spirit, may we always respect life.
Question: How do I respect life and the many seeds in which it grows?
June 13, 2021 Gospel Mark 4 26-34 Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time