Stem cell research and therapy

23 August 2001

Dear Bahá'í Friend,

Your email message of 11 August 2001 to the Universal House of Justice regarding stem cell research and therapy has been warmly received at the Bahá'í World Centre, and has been forwarded to our Department for reply.

You ask whether stem cell therapy is acceptable in Bahá'í law. As you are no doubt aware, this new area of scientific inquiry involves a distinction between embryonic and other aspects of stem cell research. Reports appearing in the press and in scientific literature indicate that such exploration is at an early stage. Many fundamental questions about the biological and genetic features of the processes involved, and the physiological implications, remain unresolved, and will become clear only with the passage of time.

Nothing specific has been found in the Bahá'í Writings regarding stem cell research and the types of therapy to which it may apply. The House of Justice regards it as premature for it to give consideration to these matters and their spiritual consequences. For the present, believers faced with questions about them are free to come to their own conclusions based on their knowledge of the Baha' i teachings on the nature and purpose of life. However, they should be careful not to make dogmatic statements or to offer their own understanding as a teaching of the Faith.

We have been asked to assure you of the prayers of the House of Justice in the Holy Shrines that the therapy you seek for your own well-being may be found.

With loving Bahá'í greetings,

Department of the Secretariat

(Baha’i Library Online)

Training Institutes

31 May 2001

Dear Bahá'í Friend,

Your letter dated 30 April 2001 has been received by the Universal House of Justice, which has directed us to reply as follows.

In your letter you indicate that you are not attracted to the idea of the training institute. You consider, rather, the study of Bahá'í Writings a personal matter and state that, in your professional capacity, you take courses on subjects about which you are uninformed as a basic introduction that enables you to proceed with your own investigations. You therefore feel uneasy about training institutes being a central feature of the Five Year Plan and seek clarification on this issue.

The Universal House of Justice appreciates the sincerity with which you present your concerns and wishes to assure you that it is entirely acceptable for you not to participate in the institute process, following your own way of studying the Writings as you have done in the past. This has certainly led in your case to outstanding service to the Cause of God. The House of Justice is aware, for example, of your contributions to Bahá'í discourse on science and religion, contributions that can only be the result of a profound study of the Writings. However, it feels that you would do well to re-examine the perspective from which you view the role of the training institute in the Bahá'í community.

The aim of the Five Year Plan, and indeed of the Plan before it and the ones that lie immediately ahead, is to advance the process of entry by troops. In its message of 26 December 1995 to the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors, the House of Justice clearly explained that occasional courses of instruction and the informal activities of community life, though important, had not proven sufficient as a means of human resource development. It indicated further that a systematic process for the development of human resources was essential to the sustained large-scale expansion of the Faith. To conceive and nurture an educational process of the magnitude envisioned by the Universal House of Justice is vastly different than thinking about one's own interests, which is not to say that personal study and spiritual growth are not legitimate and natural concerns of the individual.

Defending the Cause against Opponents on Internet

6 May 2001

Dear Bahá'í Friend,

We have been asked to respond to your enquiries of 31 January and 18 April 2001 regarding the wisest course that a believer can adopt when encountering attacks on the Faith in Internet discussions. The subject was dealt with by the Universal House of Justice in a letter dated 22 November 1999, and we are happy to enclose a copy of relevant excerpts for your information. We apologize for the delay in answering which was caused by the pressure of work at the Bahá'í World Centre.

We are not aware of any letter from the Bahá'í World Centre that commends the owner of the "Talisman" or any other Internet list, as mentioned in paragraph six of your letter of 31 January. Essentially, the position of the House of Justice is that the Internet offers Bahá'ís a very valuable communication tool. As with all other forms of consultation; however, such exchanges are spiritually and intellectually helpful to a believer to the extent that they take place within the context of Bahá'í principle.

We trust that this guidance is of assistance to you in dealing with the questions that have troubled you.

With loving Bahá'í greetings,

Department of the Secretariat

Enclosure

Defending the Cause against its Opponents