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The Value of Human Genes

Gene Genie

THE VALUE OF HUMAN GENES
By Dr. Calum Mackellar
Rutherford House. 39 pages. £2.50
ISBN 0 946068 85 2

I read this small booklet during the week when the press widely reported that scientists at the Whitehead Research Institute for Biomedical Research in Massachusetts claimed to have proof that human cloning will never be safe.

Advances in genetics are, without doubt, the main area of current scientific ethical debate and any informed Christian contribution in this field is to be welcomed.

Dr. Mackellar, as bioethics advisor to the Council of Europe, is well informed and raises many such issues that I was unaware of even as a practising doctor. Why should genetic manipulation to correct disease be acceptable, and yet be unethical to increase, say, athletic prowess or height? Should gene sequences be patented as inventions or would the copyright model (as used in publishing) be a more honest approach?

The booklet does well to touch on so many difficulties and not ignore such awkward facts as 'just as with clones, for one of a pair of identical twins the acquisition of life occurs without conception.'

When it comes to offering biblical principles to apply to some of these issues, the booklet is less helpful. There is clear application of Scripture directly to the issue of mixing genes between humans and animals, concluding that genes which 'do not belong at present to the total genetic pool of human genomes should not be inserted into the genome of a person'. However, with many other dilemmas, scriptural application is not attempted. Indeed, the opening few pages of theological treatment of the nature of human life are by a different author and quite unrelated to the remaining text.

This booklet tackles important questions but, at £2.50 for less than 30 pages of actual text, it is an expensive option and too short to do more than give a very superficial introduction. I hope the author will write a longer work to take these initial ideas further.

Dr. Trevor Stammers