wfn.org | Bioethics Task Force previews daunting array of issues

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Oct. 11, 2001      News media contact: Joretta Purdue 7(202)
546-87227Washington    10-21-71B{463}

By Joretta Purdue*

HERNDON, Va. (UMNS) - In its first meeting, the United Methodist Church's
Bioethics Task Force found itself looking at an ever-widening group of
related hot-button issues.

As it gathered Oct. 9-10, the group considered its charge from the General
Conference, the denomination's highest policy-making body, which said: "In
the light of the rapid development of biotechnology and related research,
including, but not limited to, research dealing with human cloning and the
mixing of human stem cells with animal or human embryos, we recommend that
the General Board of Church and Society form a bioethics task force to
advise the church on relevant ethical issues."

Since that legislation was passed in May 2000, embryonic stem cell research
has become a leading issue, and it drew attention both from task force
members and a roster of resource people. The task force discussed the
scientific and moral aspects of the research.

Stem cells are "cells that have the ability to divide for indefinite periods
in culture and to give rise to specialized cells," according to a primer
issued by the National Institutes of Health last year. 

Human stem cells are studied in an effort to practice "regenerative
medicine," said Daniel Marshak, a researcher of adult stem cells and
executive with the biotech company Cambrex. Researchers use those cells to
get at the cause of a disease rather than just treat symptoms, he explained.

Too often, he noted, people outside the scientific and medical communities
view stem cells as if they were all the same. Three sources of stem cells
are used in research today: embryos in the earliest stages of development,
fetuses and adult tissue.

"Cells derived from adults seem to have a lot more potential than we thought
a few years ago," Marshak said of his own area of specialty. 

"Adult" - meaning anything after birth - cells come from placentas and
discarded foreskins after circumcision. Marshak said his company does not
manufacture or sell stem cells derived from embryos or fetuses.

Harvesting stem cells from the earliest-stage human embryos results in the
destruction of the embryo. President Bush announced last summer that
federally funded research in this area would be limited to the 60-some stem
cell lines already in existence.

Concerns about commercialization and the patenting of human cells were
voiced throughout the two-day meeting. 

This was an issue for the denomination's Genetic Science Task Force, which
met from 1989 to 1992 and was re-formed for the 1997-2000 quadrennium after
the cloning of a sheep named Dolly. The task force recommended that genes
and genetically modified organisms be held as common resources. The
recommendation is found in the church's resolution titled "New Developments
in Genetic Science," adopted by General Conference in 1992 and readopted in
amended form in 2000. The Rev. Frank Seydel, an Iowa pastor and genetic
counselor, was a member of the Genetic Science Task Force and provided
continuity by addressing the bioethics panel.

The denomination's support for a ban on human cloning was mentioned during
the bioethics meeting. Church officials have spoken out on this issue during
the last 18 months, guided by the "Human Cloning" resolution adopted by the
2000 General Conference and written by the Genetic Science Task Force.

Bioethics Task Force members considered the relationship between their work
and the positions set forth in church resolutions. Jaydee Hanson, a
high-level executive with the Board of Church and Society, explained that
resolutions are policy positions until changed by General Conference. Any
individual or group in the church can recommend changes through the process
of submitting a petition to that legislative body, which meets every four
years.

The task force discussed preparation of a report with recommendations for
the Board of Church and Society and the next General Conference. 

Djumba Mamba, an agricultural geneticist who heads the United Methodist
Agricultural School in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said some
developments discussed by the group were considered taboo in his country,
and some of the advanced treatments were beyond envisioning there. He favors
efforts to relieve suffering, he added, speaking through an interpreter.

Sondra Wheeler, a professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Seminary, said she
saw no way to avoid the question of excess embryos created in the in vitro
fertilization process.

Other task force members who participated in the meeting were the Rev. Ray
Sison, chaplain at the University of the Philippines in Manila, who has
taught physics at the university; Caroline Moore-Kochlas, a neurobiology
sophomore at Stanford University, who has worked with human and animal
protocols; James Chin, a retired physician and public health professor at
the University of California, Berkeley; and the Rev. Rosemary Ross, a United
Methodist who teaches Christian ethics at the United Church of Christ's
Union Seminary in Minneapolis.

William D. Scott III, analytical chemistry professor and lay leader of the
Mississippi Annual (regional) Conference, chaired the meeting. The Rev. John
E. King, a professor who teaches social work and religious ethics at the
University of Arkansas, participated as a special consultant to the group.
He serves a Presbyterian church and was originally ordained a Catholic
clergyman.

The Rev. Stanley Hauerwas and the Rev. Amy Laura Hall, both of the
theological ethics faculty at Duke University Divinity School, share a place
on the task force, but neither was able to attend.

The task force's next meeting will be Feb. 1-2.

# # #

*Purdue is news director of United Methodist News Service's Washington
office.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org