EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: 12 FEBRUARY 2001 AT 10:00 ET US
Contact: Brent Waters[email protected]412 585-0842Science and Religion News Service
Interfaith Religious Leaders Comment on the Publication of the Human Genome
The publication of the human genome is a moment for both celebration and humility. Christian and Jewish religious leaders respond to the event with mixed reactions, ranging from resounding affirmations of the underlying science to profound worries about its applications.
This release contains quotes from carefully selected, well-informed religious leaders. All quotes are free to use by journalists in any news medium. Contact information is provided, follow-up interview are encouraged, and brief bio for each contributor can be found at the end of the release.
1. Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff, Ph.D., Rector and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of Judaism, Los Angeles, CA. email: [email protected]. Office: 310 440-1255; home: 310 659-0797.
"The publication of the human genome puts in front of us in graphic detail just how complex -- and yet how elegant -- is the structure of our very being. Surely we have a sense of pride in what human minds have come to know. At the same time, though, we cannot help but feel both wonder and awe when we view the intricate biochemical matrix that makes human life possible. This is clearly an event in which science and religion should be at one in rejoicing, for now we know just how much wisdom God demonstrated in making us as we are.
"We also should rejoice over the many positive implications of this new knowledge. Scientists have already identified the genetic mutations that are at the root of a number of diseases, raising hope that we will soon find cures for them. In Judaism, physicians and those who do medical research are God's partners and agents in the ongoing act of healing, and the mapping of the human genome makes it possible for us to carry out that mandate all the more effectively. Moreover, in so doing, we will be relieving human suffering, and that too, as Judaism sees it, an unmitigated good--indeed, a divine demand.
"Kant pointed out a long time ago that the more we can do, the more we have to ask whether we should do what we can. As we learn not only to identify the human genome but to manipulate it, we will increasingly and inevitably face the question of whether we should make changes of a certain sort. Put theologically, when do we cease being God's partner and instead play God?
"For Jews, in particular, the horrors of Nazi eugenics make us worry that the new knowledge will lead to attempts to make only certain kinds of people acceptable, eliminating, for example, short people, or dull people, or homosexuals, or disabled people. The answer, though, is not to become modern-day Luddites, trying to avoid modern developments at all costs. We rather must learn to sharpen our skills of moral discernment so that we can identify good and bad uses of our new knowledge. We then must make sure that only the good uses are pursued.
"As much as we stand in pride, awe, and wonder at this new knowledge, then, we must also recognize that it brings us a new, heightened level of moral responsibility to use that new knowledge well." --Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff
2. Sondra Ely Wheeler, Martha Ashby Carr Professor of Christian Ethics, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C. email: [email protected]; Office: 202 885-8638; secretary: 202 885 8660; mobile: 301 529-0515; home: 301) 871-5899.
"The publication of the human genome is rightly the occasion for both excitement and trepidation. On one side there is a sense of the enormous potential for scientific and medical advances that arise with this knowledge, and on the other there is an appreciation for the ethical and social challenges that the same knowledge brings with it.
"We are already struggling with the problems of access to and funding for our growing capacities in medical technology. The potency of genetic treatment and intervention for a whole range of medical conditions may greatly raise the stakes in our debates about the shape of justice and human solidarity in our communities.
"But equally serious is the philosophical challenge, the care we must take not to succumb to a mechanistic and materialist view of ourselves that our new genetic science does not require and in fact does not warrant. We need to recall how much there is to a human being which cannot be predicted or read off from the sequence of their genetic code, whose expression varies widely even between identical twins. A person is too complex an interaction of genetic endowment, physical environment, social context and the imponderables of human freedom to be regarded as the simple realization of a biochemical blueprint. It is as important to remember what we do not learn about our humanity from the genome as it is to make wise use of what we do learn." --Sondra Wheeler
3. Ted Peters, Professor of Systematic Theology, Lutheran Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA. email: [email protected]; office: 510 665 8141; mobile; 510 376 3881.
"The final chapter in the story of the Human Genome Project marks a transition to what might become an even greater epic. The sequencing of nucleotides and mapping of genes is not merely an achievement of a handful of scientists; it is a Promethean accomplishment on behalf of the entire human race. Knowledge for the sake of knowledge alone suffices to justify the concerted effort. Yet, the promise of what might come next looms as even more important, namely, the creation of gene based therapies that could dramatically improve human health and well being.
"Many fear that molecular biologists are "playing God" by delving into the inner sanctums of forbidden knowledge. I disagree. The uncovering of the genetic code is a revelation of one of the wondrous ways God has stitched together the fabric of creation. The Book of Nature reveals God's handiwork in creation, as does the Book of Scripture reveal God's saving work in redemption.
"Nevertheless, flags of ethical caution need waving. The DNA code as our evolutionary history has bequeathed it to the present generation is a jewel of nature. It should not be owned by anyone. I oppose the patenting of raw genomic data, of issuing intellectual property rights on knowledge of what's in the DNA. Key to the flourishing of research in our time is the free flow of scientific information, a flow to be protected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office." --Ted Peters
4. Laurie Zoloth, Professor of Ethics and Director of the Program in Jewish Studies, San Francisco State University. email: [email protected]; office: 415 338 6075 ; home: 510 525 4388 or 510 525 8764; mobile: 510 410 2265.
"The publication of the "map" of the human genome becomes remarkable both in its extraordinary potential for our scientific understanding of how the body works, and for our religious and philosophical understanding of who we think we are. There are essentially three reasons why mapping the human genome is important and why widely sharing this knowledge is an historical turning point for humanity:
"The first is that identity, the idea who you are and who you are related to, it the first thing we know about ourselves. Mapping of the human genome creates such intense interest because we wonder about who we are as a people, who we are as a society, what we mean by family and kin, and what we think about when we think about our history as Americans.
"Second, the mapping of the genome is like finding a set of blueprints, or instructions for a very complex house, let's say a house that has been changed over the years by a lot of do-it-yourselfers, or changed by weather or use. (Our bodies are the house, the genome map is the blueprints.) We would know a lot about how the house is put together, surely not everything, but a lot about the basic idea. Once we know at least this much, we can do much basic research about how changes in the plan cause illness or birth defeats, or premature death. It allows us a different sort of chance at understanding and changing something about the blueprints that might save lives.
"Third, the project, from its very inception, was understood as a problem for philosophers and theologians as we thought about our age-old philosophy question, "What can we know?" For theologians and, for Jewish theologians the search for knowledge is always connected to the first problem in Genesis: "how do I know what is good knowledge, just knowledge?"
"Jewish tradition supports the quest to learn about the natural world, about the way the body works, why it fails us, and how to heal it. Knowledge harnessed to the service of healing is celebrated as a measure of our progress along a journey of understanding a complicated and intricate world. That is a powerful human good, even if the use of the knowledge needs to be carefully and thoughtfully watched--that power could be used unfairly, of course, like any sort of knowledge. For Jews are given the task of "tikkun olam," healing and repairing a yet unfinished world. The more we understand, and the more democratically the knowledge is shared, the better partners Jews can be in the task of healing." --Laurie Zoloth
5. Donald Bruce, Director, Society, Religion and Technology Project, Church of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland. email [email protected]; office: +44 131 556 2953.
"The first map of the human genome brings a picture of scientists working together across the globe, to unravel our genetic code for human benefit. Sadly this is only a half truth. Who is it really for ask European churches? It looks to us more like the Wild West gold rush than 21st. century science, as companies and governments have fought ruthlessly to be the first to stake out their gene claims. The race for breast cancer genes showed how nasty it can get. Years of patient research by several groups got close to locating the first gene. At the last minute, a newly set up US company hustled in, did the last few steps and claimed that whole gold seam as their own private property.
"The UK Sanger Centre wanted to make the second gene freely available for all, but in jumped the same company and claimed a private monopoly. Some of the trumpets for the human genome project are drowned by uglier noises. This is all quite legal, because of the way we've allowed patent laws to be set up. Once, you couldn't patent a mere discovery or "products of nature" like genes, animals or plants. Now US patent law sees everything under the sun as patentable, and once one country ups the stakes, everyone follows suit. But other voices are being heard. The European Union legislation has run into trouble, with several member states now objecting to gene patenting. Patents are about actual inventions, and no one ever invented a gene. Genes are part of the common heritage of humanity, not for anyone's private monopoly. You can patent an inventive use of a gene but you should never make an exclusive claim over the gene itself, any more than claiming an element in the periodic table
"Companies naturally want investment protection for long term biotech research, but it has forced the notion of greed into the social contract that patenting was supposed to represent. This does not chime in with all the altruistic praise for the Human Genome Project. The delivery of all the benefits that are talked about depends on open access of the basic information to all, and a just sharing of the benefits. We need to recover patenting as a social contract. Companies and governments must now both be held more accountable to society for how they use their powers for the public good. We expect something in return. Christians want a bias to the poor in the way the genome is used. Will the genome project see genetic medicine as a mine for patent prospectors, or a discovery for all humanity?" --Donald Bruce
BRIEF BIOs
1. Rabbi Elliot Dorff was ordained a Conservative rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 1970 and earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University in 1971. He directs the rabbinical and Masters programs at the University of Judaism, where he currently is Rector and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy. He is also a Visiting Professor at UCLA School of Law, where he teaches a course on Jewish law. Rabbi Dorff is a member of the Conservative Movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, its Commission on the Philosophy of the Conservative Movement, and its commission to write a new Torah commentary for the Conservative Movement. His papers have formulated the validated stance of the Conservative Movement on infertility treatments and on end-of-life issues, and his Rabbinic Letters on human sexuality and on poverty have become the voice of the Conservative Movement on those topics. He has chaired two scholarly organizations, the Academy of Jewish Philosophy and the Jewish Law Association. In 1993, he served on the Ethics Committee of Hillary Rodham Clinton's Health Care Task Force, and in March 1997 and May 1999, he testified on behalf of the Jewish tradition on the subjects of human cloning and stem cell research before the National Bioethics Advisory Commission. In 1999 and 2000 he served on the U.S. Surgeon General's Task Force to diminish the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and on the commission of the Department of Health and Human Services to protect human subjects in scientific research. His publications include approximately 150 articles on Jewish thought, law, and ethics; an anthology on Jewish ethics and morality and another on Jewish theology, both published by Oxford University Press; and five books: (1) Conservative Judaism: Our Ancestors to Our Descendants; (2) A Living Tree: The Roots and Growth of Jewish Law; (3) Mitzvah Means Commandment; (4) Knowing God: Jewish Journeys to the Unknowable; and (5) Matters of Life and Death: A Jewish Approach to Modern Medical Ethics.
2. Sondra Ely Wheeler completed her undergraduate studies at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and her graduate work in theological ethics at Yale University in 1992. Since that time she has taught theological and social ethics at Duquesne University where she specialized in bioethics for health care professionals, and at Wesley Theological Seminary where she is the Martha Ashby Carr Professor of Christian Ethics. In addition, she works with the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Human Genome Initiative of the National Institute of Health on programs relating to social, ethical and religious aspects of genetic technology. Her particular interest is in the interface between questions of biomedical ethics and the central commitments of Jewish and Christian faith. At present she is working on a project funded by the Lilly Endowment on the moral character of parental power and its implications for bioethics. She is the author of Stewards of Life: Bioethics and Pastoral Care (1996) and of other essays and articles in the field of bioethics.
3. Ted Peters is Professor of Systematic Theology at Lutheran Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, California, USA; and he directs the Science and Religion Course Program at the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at the GTU. He is editor of Dialog, a Journal of Theology. He is the author of GOD: The World's Future (1992); For the Love of Children: Genetic Technology and the Future of the Family (1996); and Playing God? Genetic Determinism and Human Freedom (1997). He edited Genetics: Issues of Social Justice (1998) and Science and Theology: The New Consonance (1998). From 1991 to 1994, he was principal investigator of "Theological and Ethical Issues Raised by the Human Genome Initiative," an NIH/Human Genome/ELSI grant.
4. Laurie Zoloth is Professor of Ethics and Director of the Program in Jewish Studies at San Francisco State University, and is the incoming President of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. In 2000, Professor Zoloth was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Virginia in the Department of Religion and The Center for Medical Ethics. She is also co-founder of The Ethics Practice, a group that has provided bioethics consultation and education services to health care providers and health care systems nationally, including the Kaiser Permanente System, five Bay Area medical centers, regional long-term care networks. She is a member of the Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute National Bioethics Advisory Board. She is the bioethics consultant to NASA's Ames Research Center IACUC, and NASA's Interagency National Animal Care and Use Committees. She received her BA in Women's Studies and History from the University of California at Berkeley, her BSN from the University of the State of New York, her MA in English from San Francisco State University, her MA in Jewish Studies and her Ph.D. in Social Ethics at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. She has published extensively in the areas of ethics, family, feminist theory, religion and science, Jewish Studies, and social policy. She is the author of Health Care and The Ethics of Encounter (1999) and co-editor of four books. In addition to her membership on the national board of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, Professor Zoloth is on the national advisory boards of the American Association of the Advancement of Science's Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion; the Geron Ethics Advisory Board; The NIH's Division of AIDS DSMB; The Robert Wood Johnson's Project on Excellence at the End of Life; The American Association for the Advancement of Science's Working Group on Human Germ-Line Interventions and on Stem Cell Research; the Ethics Section of the American Academy of Religion; the Western Jewish Studies Association; The Louis Finkelstein Institute for Jewish Social Ethics (JTS); The Park Ridge Center's Project on Judaism and Bioethics, and the editorial boards of Shofar: A Journal of Jewish Studies; The Journal of Clinical Ethics; and Second Opinion. Her current research projects include work on both the ethics of ordinary life, and the emerging issues in medical and research genetics. In 1999 she was invited to give testimony to National Bioethics Advisory Board on Jewish philosophy and stem cell research. She is director of a AAAS project on Judaism and the New Genetics. In 2000 she was awarded a NIH ELSI (Ethical Legal and Social Issues of the Human Genome) Grant to explore the ethical issues after the mapping of the human genome.
5. Dr. Donald Bruce worked for 15 years in chemistry research and risk assessment in nuclear energy, before training in theology in 1992 and becoming Director of the Society, Religion and Technology Project of the Church of Scotland. This unit was set up in 1970 to address ethical issues in modern technology, especially by engaging with technologists. His work is wide ranging and encompasses both biotechnology and environmental fields. He chaired a 5-year interdisciplinary expert group on the ethics of genetic engineering in non-human species, and is co-editor of Engineering Genesis (1998). He is a leading authority on the ethics of GM food and animals, gene patenting, genetic risk, animal and human cloning and stem cells. He is also working on technology risk and risk perception, and on the tensions arising from globalisation in the areas of biotechnology, agriculture, environment and national ethical and cultural traditions. He is also involved with environmental issues, including climate change, energy policy, and the relationship between sustainable development and economics. He is involved in practical apologetics, including the God and Science debate, and is a member of the Church of Scotland committee on apologetics. Dr. Bruce is a member of the public issues advisory committee of the UK Biotechnology Research Council and is an observer to the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO, and the Global Summit of National Bioethics Committees. He is a member of the bioethics committee of the Conference of European Churches, the enabling team of the European Christian Environmental Network (and is its webmaster), and is involved with World Council of Churches work on climate change and biotechnology issues.
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