What is the Church's view on Genetic Engineering, Stem Cell Research and Cloning?
Hello, I'm a year twelve student at Prescott College in SA, Adelaide. I have an important upcoming assignment on religions in Australia, and I have chosen the topic 'science and religion'. I was wondering if you could please tell me how the Seventh-day Baptist church views genetic engineering, stem cell research and cloning.

Thank you for your time,
Carine.

ANSWER

On the topics of genetic engineering, stem cell research and cloning the church has no official view but there are some underlying principles that will be consistent among our members.

The underlying principle that makes the Christian worldview stand apart from other ethical systems is that we believe that human life is of priceless value.

While other systems may consider that what is good for the majority of people is morally 'right', Christians uphold the rights of all individual human beings, even those who are not yet born because they believe that God alone has the right to give and take human life. No doctor or scientist on this planet can define the point in the development of a foetus when it appropriates value as a human being. We consider that the gift of human life is given at conception and therefore, this definitive moment begins human life. It is a human being from the beginning.

We see potential dangers in genetic engineering in that it may open the way for parents to design children for special purposes. To quote an extreme yet possible scenario, a champion swimmer may choose to 'design' his child to become a super swimming athlete. This way of thinking devalues human life in that it treats people for want they can do, not what they essentially are - a free human being. The concept of using other human life for a dominant person's purposes is a basic denial of human freedom. The same concept was behind slavery in the eighteenth century, when Negroes were bred for strength and endurance for the purposes of manual labour. Human beings are free moral agents who should be able to develop their own abilities as they see fit. Genetic Engineering hopes to achieve the same goals that extremist twentieth-century political regimes tried to do via national breeding programs.

While a lot of good can come from genetic engineering in the form of disease prevention etc., the child who physically develops a physical defect is no less a human having the same rights to live as a fit and healthy child. None of us want to see children born with mental or physical defects, but we cannot condone any processes that develop of several embryos (human life), knowing that only one will be chosen for implantation into the womb while the others are terminated (killed). In teh future, when genetic engineering becomes the 'done thing', how will society view parents who have a child by natural means? Will they be considered reckless, uncaring, or unloving for failing to protect their child against defect? Will GE be available for all, or will it be an option reserved for the rich? What support will society be willing to give then to parents who produce a disabled child by natural means?

Stem cell research poses a similar moral dilemma. We believe that we should never devalue human life to the point where the life of one human being is taken by another human being for medical, research, or practical purposes. We cannot consider breeding or cloning human beings for the purposes of 'spare parts'.

We do not unilaterally oppose all research and development of this nature but, knowing human nature, we are aware of its potential dangers. We do not trust western society's concept and treatment of human life and the abortion industry stands as an abhorrent daily reminder of the low level of value and regard for human life in its weakest and most vulnerable form.