Alexis Carrel (Nobel)

Alexis Carrel, a French surgeon, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1912 for pioneering vascular suturing (blood vessel stitching) techniques. He also invented the first perfusion pump, enabling organs to remain viable outside of the body during transplantation. Despite his devout Catholic upbringing, he became an agnostic in college. That is, until he became a "principle witness" to a miraculous cure at the Lourdes shrine in France. His steadfast refusal to recant his observations surrounding this "miracle" damaged his professional reputation, encouraging him to immigrate to United States. In 1939, Alexis returned to his Catholic faith after meeting with a Trappist monk Alexis Presse, who had a profound influence on his life. Carrel said: "I believe in the existence of God, in the immortality of the soul, in Revelation and in all the Catholic Church teaches." He further stated: "Only religion proposes a complete solution to the human problem. Christianity, above all has given a clear-cut answer to the demands of the human soul." Apparently these "clear cut answers' are not always so clear. Like all of us, Carrel was prone to mistakes throughout his life, as evident in his controversial advocation for the euthanasia of criminals and the criminally insane. Did God forgive this man's errors in judgement when his friend Alexis Presse administered the Catholic Last Rites on his death bed in 1944?