Sacred body? Stem cell research and human cloning

This document is, to this very day, the last official statement of the WCC on questions of biotechnology. It walks a fine line between a fundamental critique of the genetic manipulation of human life and the instrumentalization of early human life on the one hand, and on the other the hope for new possibilities of healing currently incurable diseases and thus the prospect of the alleviation of human suffering. The document mirrors the fact that the ethical discourses in the national contexts of the various member churches are quite different. Nevertheless, there is a common basic understanding of the dangers of misuse of the new scientific possibilities. The WCC calls for a ban on using genetic diagnosis for selecting gender, and warns against using genetics as a basis for discrimination at the work place and in the insurance industry. At the same time, it leaves certain doors open. It calls for a ban of germ line gene therapy "at the present time". Considering the fact that germ line gene therapy means manipulating genes which influence the genetic basis of future generations--and is therefore the basis for designing future human beings--this wording shows that the WCC's critique of genetic manipulation of life in 1989 was rather cautious.

A similar conclusion can be drawn from the statement which the document makes concerning the use of human embryos for research. If we admit, says the document, that the potential of a human embryo to become one or more persons demands our respect, then we are obliged not to experiment with such an embryo at all (or, at least, only if there are grave reasons to do so). Then the document names such reasons: grave genetic diseases, or research to cure lethal illnesses. As a, consequence the WCC advises governments to ban research with human embryos. If there are exceptions then the governments are to define the conditions very clearly.

This brief look at the only elaborated WCC policy document on questions of biotechnology shows that the WCC expresses a clear ethical reservation against modern biotechnology. But it does not absolutely condemn genetic manipulation and the use of embryos for research.

Since 1989, the development in biotechnology has been rapid. Some of the techniques which are at the centre of the current ethical and political debate had not even been discovered then. Therefore, an intense discussion on biotechnology has to be at the very top of the ecumenical agenda. Not only the scientific community, but also the political actors in the global community need to know what the churches have to say on these urgent issues concerning fundamental questions of life. The international ecumenical working group on bio-ethics, which was established in 2001, needs the full institutional support of the WCC in order to reach its conclusions as quickly as possible.

Two of the most burning issues not yet treated in the 1989 document, but which are presently undergoing ethical and political discussion in various countries, will be examined more thoroughly in this article: the use of embryonic stem cells for research and the cloning of human embryos.