wfn.org | Cloning Resolution Drafted

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (367
notes).

Note 366 by UMNS on Oct. 2, 1997 at 16:05 Eastern (4421 characters).

Contact:  Joretta Purdue  	554(10-21-71B){366}
		Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722  	Oct. 2, 1997

Genetic Science Task Force drafts
cloning resolution for year 2000

	WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- Members of the Genetic Science Task Force of the United
Methodist Church struggled with the language to send to the 2000 General
Conference and developed plans for an open one-day conference on human cloning
issues and ethics.
	Meeting here Oct. 1, the task force created a proposed revision of the
current resolution on genetic science passed by the 1992 General Conference
and drafted a separate resolution dealing specifically with human cloning.
	With this meeting, the task force has concluded its scheduled face-to-face
sessions. Bishop Susan M. Morrison, Albany, N.Y., has convened the task force
this quadrennium.
	The group continues to call for a ban on human cloning, including all
privately or governmentally funded projects that are intended to advance human
cloning.
	The new resolution stresses the importance of widespread discussions that
would include theologians and ethicists, people who might be directly affected
by developments in this field, and experts in the fields of medicine, science
and public policy.
	Both documents from this meeting will be resubmitted this month to members of
the task force by electronic means and later circulated to annual conferences
and other groups within the church.
	The 11-member task force, which was created in 1988, reported to the 1992
General Conference and was disbanded. The same members -- with the exception
of the convening bishop -- were called together again in May by the churchwide
Board of Church and Society, with the assistance of a $20,000 grant from the
World Service Contingency Fund. A second meeting was held in July.
	With the small amount of money remaining, the group hopes to hold a
conference in early May 1998 to encourage more discussion of human cloning
issues, especially between members of the faith communities, representatives
from corporations and government, and people with a personal interest in
genetic diseases and genetic therapies.
	A committee of four members and one staff was formed to continue planning for
the event. 
	They are the Rev. David Trickett, ethicist and educator in Washington; the
Rev. Frank Seydel, geneticist and genetic counselor, Washington; E. Virginia
Lapham, a social scientist, Washington; Marion Johnson-Thompson, a molecular
biologist, Triangle Park, N.C.; and Jaydee Hanson, a member of the United
Methodist Board of Church and Society staff in Washington.
	Two resource people spoke to the Oct. 1 gathering of the task force.
	Mardi Mellon, a molecular biologist and lawyer with the Union of Concerned
Scientists, advised in a brief visit, "We need to have people think hard and
long on the implications of these technologies."
	Genetic engineering "is not a precise technology," Mellon said. The testing
process in the genetic engineering of plants is not working well, she added
and cited examples where it had failed to prevent disasters. Companies, such
as seed companies, are doing their own testing, she noted.
	Mellon also warned of the "very cynical use of the need to enable people to
feed themselves as an argument to make people accept genetically engineered
plants." She explained that Europe is saying no to these plants, and the
United States is trying to force acceptance of them. She added that the
companies involved are talking but not doing anything to help people who need
food to grow it.
	Andrew Kimbrell, an attorney with the Center for Technology Assessment, told
the group that genetically engineered foods are generally exempted from
regulation and are not labeled. He spoke of genetic material from fish being
added to some plants, an antibiotic-bearing killed virus being added to others
and pesticides being inserted into seeds -- and the unanswered questions
associated with such changes.
	He urged people to look at a "biological model of pollution" in addition to
the chemical pollution targeted by past legislation. Once a biological
pollutant is released into the environment, he said, "you can't control it"
and non-target organisms are at risk.
	Commenting that technology should never be looked at in isolation, Kimbrell
asserted that society has never successfully limited technological development
to beneficial uses.
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