wfn.org | Bioethics Task Force to make draft available for comment

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Oct. 18, 2002	 News media contact: Joretta Purdue7(202)
546-87227Washington	10-71B{479}

HERNDON, Va. (UMNS) - The charge to produce a recommendation on stem cell
research and other issues has led the United Methodist Church's Bioethics
Task Force into the world of in vitro fertilization, which is at the heart
of a draft statement the group is preparing.

The statement is still a work in progress. However, the task force members
noted at an Oct. 13-14 gathering that they are nearing the end of the time
available to produce a recommendation for the church. When the document is
ready, it will be made available for comment throughout the church, then
sent on to the denomination's Board of Church and Society, which administers
the task force. The board will submit the report to the General Conference,
the church's top lawmaking body, which will meet in Pittsburgh in 2004.

Stem cells are basic units that can form into any body part. Vital organs,
bone, muscle, skin - all the parts of the body develop from those initial
cells that are in an embryo. The existence of other sources of stem cells -
umbilical cord blood, fetal remains and adult tissues - does not lessen the
controversy about using embryonic stem cells for research.

The "harvesting" of embryonic stem cells causes a moral dilemma for some
people because the embryo is destroyed in the process. Some scientists and
activists who focus on particular diseases have said that embryonic stem
cells have more potential for yielding cures than stem cells from other
sources.

Some have suggested taking embryonic stem cells from already existing
embryos that were created through in vitro fertilization but will not be
introduced into a mother's womb. Tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of
thousands, of excess embryos are in frozen storage.

In its current draft, the task force discourages the use of in vitro
fertilization for moral reasons. The task force cites issues of stewardship
because the procedure is expensive in money and energy, effects on the
would-be parents both physically and emotionally, and questions about the
status of unused embryos.

"A human embryo, even at its earliest stages, is a form of human life," the
task force says. Observing that the embryo does not yet possess all the
attributes of the human being it may become, members of the task force have
decided that "a human embryo commands our reverence and makes a serious
moral claim on us, although not a claim identical to that of a more
developed human life."

This conclusion has led the group to warn against creating embryos with the
intention of destroying them, as in the creation of embryos for research
purposes. The task force also opposes reproductive technologies that produce
more embryos than one would expect to introduce into the womb for a
pregnancy.

In its current draft, the task force says that "it is morally tolerable to
use existing embryos for stem cell research purposes" because most, if not
all, of these excess embryos will be discarded or destroyed. The draft
acknowledges that this decision is made "with remorse and guilt." Even so,
this is one point on which the group's members did not reach consensus.

In another area dealing with embryos, the task force is objecting to a
proposed practice called "therapeutic cloning." The task force describes the
process this way: "This involves taking a donated human egg, extracting its
nucleus, and replacing it with a nucleus taken from another body cell. This
newly formed cell would then be electrically stimulated to develop into an
embryo.

"Such a procedure," the task force says, "violates a norm that until
recently was almost universally recognized, that human embryos should not be
created purely for the sake of research, or created with the advance
intention of destroying them." This would "deny completely the reverence we
have claimed is due to all stages of human life." As a result, the task
force opposes the deliberate creation of stem cells through cloning. 

The task force, created by the 2000 General Conference, began its work where
previous groups left off. The list of topics it was to address included
genetically modified organisms. The task force now plans to recommend that
the 2004 General Conference fund another study group or groups to consider a
range of issues connected to genetic testing, to develop resources about
bioethics for congregational and pastoral use, and to analyze the interests
that have funded lobbying efforts and public relations efforts regarding
embryonic stem cell research.

When the draft is ready for comment, it will be posted on the Board of
Church and Society's Web site at www.umc-gbcs.org. It also will be available
from Jaydee Hanson, the board executive who staffs the task force. He can be
reached at (202) 488-5641.
 
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