|
How to be a Christian in a brave new worldThe taking, making and faking of human life HOW TO BE A CHRISTIAN IN A BRAVE NEW WORLD Imagine: British scientists apply for a licence to create embryos that will be part human (99.9%) and part rabbit or cow (0.1%). Now wake up: it is about to happen here in Britain in the interests of stem cell research. I read about that in The Times the day I finished reading this book and suddenly the sci-fi world seemed to land in my living room. What we need, I thought, is a theologian to take the lead of the crucial body in this debate — The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority — a pillar of the church who will have the ear of government. The Times went on to tell me that this is what we have: Lord Harries has been appointed chairman of the HFEA; that’s Richard Harries, the retired former Bishop of Oxford, yes the one who wanted to make Jeffery John the Bishop of Reading. He hopes that the development of what some papers called Frankenbunnies, will come within his remit. He does not think it a bad thing! No bottom lineLord Harries will not prove a bulwark against liberal thinking in the field of stem cell research, IVF and cloning. Responding to a question about ‘playing God’ with human life, he said this: ‘Human beings have always interacted with nature. And, from a religious point of view, it seems to me that it is part of our God-given talent and ability to engage in scientific research to improve people’s chances of having children, of having healthier children. This is all part of the divine gift to human beings and a very, very fundamental part of what it is to be human.’ He does not feel it is necessary to acknowledge the human rights of the embryo and is willing for it to be used for research or even destroyed so long as ‘they are accorded great respect in the sense that every single fertilised egg has to be accounted for’. Sleep-walking into troubleThe Times acknowledges that ‘these decisions [concerning embryology] go to the heart of how we see society in the 21st century’. Which raises questions for us: How do we see society in the 21st century? What response will we make to the issues of cloning and the like as they impinge increasingly on life as we know it? For most of us the science is beyond us and, since the Bible seems to have little to say on the matter, we remain quiet. We may find that we are sleep-walking into a much worse situation than when, in the 1960s, we woke up to find that abortion had become a fact of life. This could be Huxley’s Brave New World. All of which leads me to this conclusion about a recent book by two well-known authors — Joni Eareckson Tada and Nigel Cameron — it is arguably the most significant Christian book to be published in the past decade and it will almost certainly be among the most important to the next ten years. You will be astonished and alarmed at what is already accepted practice in the biotechnology field. Most of us are out of our depth when we see reports in the media. When we are told that embryonic stem cells could help people walk we are unaware that research on embryonic cells has yet to help anyone, while previously paralysed people are walking as the result of stem cells taken from their own noses! We are unable to recognise the threats posed and are unsure where to begin making a biblical response, yet we live in a country with among the most liberal laws on human cloning in the world! Unprincipled industryThe authors bring an invaluable blend of experience and wisdom to the issues. Joni is probably the best-known Christian with a disability in the world. She brings to the subject a knowledge of thousands of real-life people for whom the subject is anything but theoretical. Her contributions bring the issues home to the heart. Nigel Cameron brings the insight of a theologian and a scientist. He is a research professor of bioethics at the Illinois Institute of Technology and president of the Institute of Biotechnology and the Human Future. He provides cogent and convincing biblical thinking relevant to 21st-century science. The book brings out the total absence of a framework of principles on the part of the biotech industry, the pressure of commercial interests, and the small incremental steps by which the foundations of who and what we are as human beings continues to be eroded. ScaryThe authors face the challenge of abortion and euthanasia (the taking of life), describe developments in the copying and manipulation of life in cloning and genetic engineering — including the patenting of genes — (the making of life), and briefly explore, in its most scary section, the interventions of nanotechnology and progress with artificial intelligence (the faking of life). If the book has a disadvantage it is that it is American. All the case studies and action plans relate to the States, though a little thought makes it possible to see what steps we can take in the UK. When did you ever hear a sermon on cloning? What would your pastor advise if you asked for guidance about IVF treatment? And suppose you could provide and embryo for research to help your father’s Parkinson Disease — what would you do as a Christian? Answers are urgently needed, but we have hardly begun to frame the questions! David C. Potter, MBE, © Evangelicals Now - December 2006 |