wfn.org | Re: United Methodist Daily News note 541

[owner-umethnews@ecunet.org (United Methodist News list)]

Reply-to: owner-umethnews@ecunet.org (United Methodist News list)
"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 (543
notes).

Note 543 by UMNS on Jan. 13, 1998 at 15:59 Eastern (6558 characters).

TITLE:	Human Cloning Objections Voiced

Contact:  Joretta Purdue  	16(10-21-71B)543
		Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722  	Jan. 13, 1998

Physicist Richard Seed, a United Methodist,
ignites moral, ethical debate on cloning

	by United Methodist News Service

	 
	Sparking debate on human cloning early in the new year was Richard Seed, a
physicist who is a member of First United Methodist Church in Oak Park, Ill.
	In an interview on National Public Radio in early January, Seed proposed
putting together a team of scientists to work on human cloning.
	Seed, who is in his late 60s, has a Ph.D. from Harvard and has experience in
developing treatment for infertility.
	On Jan. 8, two days after Seed's proposal became national news, the Rev. Thom
White Wolf Fassett, general secretary of the United Methodist Board of Church
and Society, issued a statement calling on the U.S. Congress to immediately
enact a ban on human cloning.
	"The unproven safety of the procedure alone should be enough to prevent work
in this area," Fassett asserted.
	Seed, when reached by phone at his Riverside, Ill., home, declined to be
interviewed and expressed irritation with the media. "They don't understand
the problems that infertile couples have," he said.
	Since the announcement of the cloning of a sheep named Dolly in February
1997, a reactivated United Methodist Genetic Science Task Force -- created by
order of the 1988 General Conference and disbanded in 1992 on completion of
its task -- and the United Methodist Board of Church and Society have both
called for a ban on human cloning.
	In his weekly Saturday morning radio broadcast Dec. 10, President Clinton
likewise urged Congress to ban the cloning of human beings.
	In a television interview, Seed said he would take his cloning
experimentation project to another country such as Mexico if it is banned in
the United States.
	Official policies of the United Methodist Church, developed by quadrennial
General Conferences, do not specifically mention human cloning, but the
church's Social Principles include a call for guidelines on genetic technology
to prevent abuse and harmful consequences. 
	The Social Principles object to "genetic therapies for eugenic choices or
that produce waste human embryos."
	Fassett points out that the United Methodist Church opposes genetic research
which produces waste human embryos. "We believe efforts such as those of Dr.
Seed will consequently produce large numbers of waste human embryos," he said.
 "The cloning of Dolly the sheep, required more than 270 attempts."
	A resolution on "New Developments in Genetic Science" was adopted by
delegates to the 1992 General Conference, reflecting the work of the original
task force. This resolution urged Christians to evaluate genetic developments
in view of God as creator and humans as stewards of creation.
	While urging church members to continue the discussion of genetic science
among themselves and with the larger community, the resolution opposed
patenting of plant and animal life forms and rejected alterations that could
be passed to offspring. It was generally supportive of medical and
agricultural research that did not violate these principles or in other ways
add to injustice or suffering.
	The Rev. Frank Seydel, a member of the United Methodist Genetic Science Task
Force recalling for United Methodist News Service the 1997 discussions of that
nine-member group, said, "There was not anybody there who thought we should
proceed with [human] cloning at the present time. The only question was,
should we have a moratorium or a ban."
	Seydel, geneticist and genetic counselor at Georgetown University Medical
Center, Washington, and a clergy member of the Iowa Annual Conference, said
procedures such as human cloning that would require the expenditure of large
numbers of human embryos seems unjustifiable. 
	"The benefit doesn't justify the risk -- the moral risk in this case," he
said. 
	Seydel also recalled that the task force expressed concern for the physical
and psychological consequences to the women who act as hosts to the clones and
to the effects on family dynamics.
	"All the usual problems of child-rearing would be made more complex by
cloning," he said. Cloning would also raise issues of genetic information and
legal status.
	He said that he expects there will be human cloning at sometime but "sees no
good reason for it at this time."
	Another task force member, the Rev. Rebekah L. Miles, associate professor in
Christian ethics at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, said,
"I oppose human cloning -- that is the cloning of a whole [individual] from a
adult cell." Miles said she thinks tissue cloning or organ cloning at a later
time is a different matter.
	"It really changes the relationship between parent and child when you decide
ahead what you want -- when the relationship is controlled and manipulated
from the very beginning," she observed. "That's a very different understanding
of parenthood than we've had even in the ancient biblical stories."
	Miles, a member of the Little Rock Conference, went on to say that creation
as given by God is dynamic and moving "and you always get something
different." 
	The Rev. David Trickett, an ethicist in the Washington metropolitan area and
a clergy member of the Louisiana Annual Conference, said his main concern is
"At this point ... there is no clarity in understanding the impact of what we
don't know." 
	Also a member of the task force, he said the real issues that most people do
not focus upon in any creative endeavor are the limitations of their
knowledge.
	"We have no general understanding of what is the wise use of these
technologies," Trickett said, "and, as far I can tell, we don't have any
effective forum, yet, for helping us get clear on those issues of wisdom and
insight." 
	To stimulate such discussion Trickett proposed -- and the task force agreed
to sponsor -- an open forum on issues related to genetic engineering and
cloning. As a result, plans are shaping up for such a seminar in May in
Washington.
	But, Trickett emphasized, the issues of genetic engineering and cloning need
a larger forum than any religious organization; group of social, scientific or
medical research institutions; or even government can provide by itself. 
	Trickett said he hopes the seminar will help foster a national dialogue that
would include also the business research sector, private clinicians, pastoral
counseling community and people from a wide range of individual and family
circumstances.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 To make suggestions or give your comments, send a note to 
 umns@ecunet.org or Susan_Peek@ecunet.org

 This article sent to both the umethnews list <umethnews-request@ecunet.org>
 and also to the Worldwide Faith News list wfn-news <majordomo@wfn.org>
 Look at the header files to figure out which this is.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------