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Clones: The Clowns of Technology?

Celling ourselves short

CLONES: THE CLOWNS OF TECHNOLOGY?
By Gareth Jones
Paternoster. 192 pages
ISBN 1 8 227 086 9

If you are looking for a careful, unemotional review of some of the new developments in biotechnology here is the book for you. As the title suggests, its major focus is cloning, but the range is much wider with sections reviewing the human genome project and its potential applications.

Gareth Jones is an evangelical Christian professor of neuro-anatomy and so an expert on the biological aspects of brain growth but he explains the basic technology of cloning in a readily understandable manner. He has written several other books which explore early human development and the knotty question of when the person begins. He puts aside the 'yuk' factor that so often comes into play when the issue of cloning is raised, and looks at the matter in a logical and biblical way. There are no specific biblical texts on the conundrums raised by modern technology but Scripture gives us ample teaching on the principles we should apply to our relationships with one another and with our children. It is these Gareth Jones applies to the new developments. Following Jesus's example in the Sermon on the Mount he encourages us to look to the motives behind the use of bio-technolgy. Overcoming serious medical problems is one thing, and part of our mandate to care for our neighbour; use for self-aggrandisement, or for bringing children into being as specified commodities is clearly wrong. The difficulties arise in knowing into which category some scenarios fall.

Informed common sense can usefully be applied with the result that the more speculative suggestions for the use of cloning are shown to be totally unrealistic. Our development as people depends on so much more than our genetic make-up.

When considering the use of cells derived from very early embryos for the development of treatment of serious diseases the author does not commit himself to any position but stresses the importance of not jumping to hasty conclusions when rejecting potential ways forward. Here there is a degree of repetition, particularly of the theme of the foolishness of either knee-jerk rejection or mindless promotion of new ideas, but this is an area where emotions are easily aroused and such repetition is perhaps necessary. The clown motif at the end of the book reminds us not to take our technological progress too proudly and to remember that we are but creatures, all too prone to fall flat in our over-confidence. It is only in an attitude of humility, looking to our Creator for wisdom, that we can move forward in the use of the new technical skills with which we have been entrusted.

The book has a glossary of biological terms, an index, a wide ranging bibliography and after each chapter there are half a dozen down-to-earth questions for group discussion. As these issues are ones which often become clearer to us as we express our views in discussion with others this would make a good but stretching book for small group study.

Caroline Berry