January 6, 2003
Baptist ethicists across the board denounce human cloning
___By Robert Marus
___ABP Washington Bureau
___WASHINGTON (ABP)--Prominent Baptist ethicists have joined a chorus of religious leaders in soundly denouncing a cult-like group's recent assertion that they have produced the first cloned human infant.
___Clonaid, a cloning firm associated with a religious group that believes space aliens created human life, announced Dec. 27 that a child named "Eve" was born the previous day. The location of the child's birth and the mother's name were not released. Clonaid claims Eve is an exact genetic replica of her mother--making her a clone.
___Scientists and ethicists cautioned that the announcement may be a hoax; similar announcements of cloned humans in the past have proved false. However, the information could not be scientifically verified until at least Jan. 4, according to Clonaid scientific director and Raelian spokesperson Brigitte Boisselier.
___Baptist ethicists of conservative, moderate and middle-of-the-road varieties all condemned the announcement.
___"When unprincipled science meets crazy religion, the results may be horrific, like cloning a human being," said Robert Parham, director of the Nashville-based Baptist Center for Ethics.
___Likewise, the Southern Baptist Convention's head ethicist, Richard Land, said he believes the advent of human cloning, if it is true, "will lead to Frankenstein fiction becoming Frankenstein fact. Sooner rather than later we are going to be presented with horrific human tragedies coming out of these laboratories."
___And ethicist David Gushee of Baptist-related Union University in Jackson, Tenn., said the news means delays over illegalizing human cloning in the world's legislatures may have had disastrous consequences.
___"From a Christian perspective, the Clonaid announcement is disastrous news," Gushee said. "Some of us have been warning that the world community needed to move quickly to stop human cloning ... . If it turns out that the activities of this frightening group have actually yielded a cloned human being, it will be all too clear that we have not moved quickly enough."
___The vast majority of religious groups worldwide oppose human cloning for reproductive purposes. However, recent legislative and religious debates have ensued about outlawing all forms of cloning, including what scientists call "therapeutic cloning" or "somatic cell transplantation."
___Human fetal stem cells may help treat or even cure certain diseases. But the process of harvesting those cells kills the fetus from which they are harvested. While many anti-abortion activists have opposed stem-cell research on these grounds, other religious ethicists have opposed it on the grounds that it would be difficult to outlaw reproductive cloning without also outlawing all other forms of cloning.
___A debate over this issue stalled the passage of a human-cloning ban in the U.S. Senate in 2002--leaving the U.S. without laws addressing human cloning. If Clonaid's announcement turns out to be true, the federal government would have little recourse for prosecuting the doctors and mother involved.
___However, scientists who support research cloning contend that outlawing that form of cloning would not make it any less likely that groups such as the Raelians would attempt reproductive cloning.
___Parham warned that Clonaid's announcement shouldn't rush consideration about cloning bans. "We must not let crazy scientists and biotechnology phobes determine the future of good scientific research," Parham said. "Rather than overreacting, we need careful discernment within the Christian community about the proper relationship between science and religion."
The Baptist Standard
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