wfn.org | Reaction to Sheep Cloning

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3458 notes).

Note 3456 by UMNS on Feb. 27, 1997 at 16:17 Eastern (4980 characters).

SEARCH: Cloning, genetic research, medical ethics,
 Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency
of the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn.,
New York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Linda Bloom                         102(10-21-71B){3456}
          New York (212) 870-3803                    Feb. 27, 1997

Cloning technology is simple;
ethical implications are not

                          by Linda Bloom*
                          A UMNS Feature

     Twenty-seven years ago, the cloning project that Robert
Veatch worked on at the Hastings Center in New York didn't
generate much excitement. <P>
     "Basically, we were told it was so much science fiction that
nobody was interested in it," recalled Veatch, a United Methodist
who now serves as a professor of medical ethics for the Kennedy
Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, Washington D.C.<P>
     With the Feb. 22 announcement of the successful cloning of a
sheep -- a feat that has astounded some scientists as well as
laypeople and generated endless debate -- science fiction has
turned into fact.<P>
     The cloning was accomplished by Ian Wilmut, an embryologist
from Scotland, who replaced the genetic content of one sheep's egg
with the DNA from another adult sheep. The lamb that was born,
named Dolly, is a genetic replica of that grown sheep.<P>
     While the technology used was relatively simple, the ethical
and moral implications of its future applications are not,
according to several United Methodists.<P>
     "With cloning, the theological questions are encamped right
in the middle of things," said the Rev. Rebekah Miles, assistant
professor of Christian ethics and director of United Methodist
studies at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, Fort
Worth. "You can't take a step without tripping over them."<P>
     Cloning doesn't mean we're playing God, according to Miles,
because God's creation values diversity, not sameness. It's more
an issue of being too human.<P>
     "We human beings have a long track record of putting too much
faith in our own technology and making ourselves the center of the
world," she said. "It's called sin."<P>
     The technology for cloning now exists. Because of the
agricultural interest in cloning, Veatch expects the techniques to
be perfected quickly. Once developed, he said, "it will be very
tempting to try it in very special human cases."<P>
     Veatch -- an ethics consultant for the United Methodist
Association of Health and Welfare Ministries, which represents 400
health care and human service organizations and professionals --
believes the medical community would resist efforts to clone
humans as a means of creating donor organs for transplant.<P>
     But there could be other cases, he said, "where the emotional
appeal will be so great it will be very hard for physicians and
others to resist."<P>
     An example, he said, would be a case where a couple with
fertility problems hope to clone a dying child.<P>
     That type of cloning scenario raises "astounding questions
about what it means to be a human, to love other humans, to live
and die as humans," according to Miles.<P>
     "Mortality, loss and fragility are an inescapable part of our
being," she said. "Of course, we applaud medical advances that
extend life. But we cannot manufacture or reproduce that
distinctive person."<P>
     Jaydee Hanson, an executive with the United Methodist Board
of Church and Society, came close to being a dying child. Born
with a genetic disease, he was saved by surgical intervention. But
he doesn't agree that genetic engineering is a solution.<P>
     Hanson advocates a moratorium on any commercial cloning of
animals "until we have clear research guidelines in place" and a
"straight prohibition on humans."<P>
     He said he doesn't even support animal cloning for the
purpose of donor organs for human transplant. "I would rather the
research money go to better prevention of diseases," he explained,
citing diabetes as an example.<P>
     Hanson plans to ask Church and Society directors to adopt a
policy advocating a cloning ban at the board's March 6-9 meeting
in Washington.  <P>
     Both Veatch and Miles said they are not totally opposed to
animal cloning, but fear the possible consequences. Miles, who was
a member of a denominational Genetic Science Task Force, opposes
any research on human cloning and supports a temporary moratorium
on animal cloning until "an international commission of
scientists, ethicists, community leaders and lawmakers" can study
the ethical implications.<P>
     "We should have put limits on the technology before it got
this far," she declared. "We've been refusing to deal with the
ethical implications because we didn't think mammal cloning was
likely. We were wrong." 
                              #  #  #

     * Bloom is director of the United Methodist News Service
office in New York.

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