Jonathan Clarke wrote:
> You are welcome. I am surprised that there has been little discussion of this in
> the US. But then, genetic modification seems much more accepted in the US than it
> is in many other parts of the world, so in places like Britain, Germany, and here
> Australia (where there is widespread opposition to GM crops, even amongst farmers)
> there is quite a bit of interest. It was front page news in the local paper today
> and a lead story on the TV news last night, for example.
>
> Interestingly, the German ban on genetically modified organisms means that these
> children will probably not be allowed into that country, should their parents wish
> to take them there or they later wish to themselves. I understand that this ban
> has already resulted at least one child, who had undergone a different form of
> germ line therapy, to be denied an entry visa.
>
> This illustrates the very complex ethical issues that arise not only from the
> technology but also our attempts to control it. Is it right to deny people the
> right to travel to a particular country for example, because they are classed as a
> genetically modified organism through a decision made by their parents? People
> worry about unforeseen consequences of technology, but laws to control that
> technology can also have unforeseen effects. The implication of the German
> legisation (one would hope unintended) is that genetically modified humans have
> less rights than genetically pure humans. Now where have I heard something
> similar?
>
> It would be interesting and valuable to see more discussion on the theological and
> ethical issues of various current biomedical issues such as cloning, stem cells,
> genetic screening (and descrimination), and genetic modification of organisms
> (including humans) through means other than selective breeding on the ASA list.
> The world of GATTACCA may be closer than we think.
I shouldn't suggest that there has been no mention of this in the US - it is
e.g. in CNN's US sci-tech news, though ranking below Dennis Tito there.
The concern about treating genetically modified children as not fully human is
a very realistic. It will become even more so with things like deliberate alteration
of the nuclear germline (as distinguished from scatter-gun additions to mDNA) and
cloning. & like it or not, somebody is going to do those things eventually.
I think that the decision has to be made now, before that happens, that
individuals from genetically modified germlines and clones are to be treated as fully
human. (I refer to their legal and theological status - two different things of
course. OTOH we can't simply "decide" what the attitude of the general populace will
be.) If this isn't done we are setting ourselves up for some serious problems. That
doesn't in itself mean that doing such things is to be approved or encouraged - though
it would tend to remove an obstacle from such work.
Shalom,
George
George L. Murphy
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
"The Science-Theology Interface"
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