Assistant SRT Director Appointed	Cloned Cats and Fatherless Embryos
We are delighted to announce that Victoria Beale will be the Assistant Director of the Society, Religion and Technology Project, starting in June. Victoria, 26, has a background in environmental conservation, with a BA in natural sciences from Cambridge University and an MSc in wildlife management from Reading. She was the scientific assistant warden for two years at the Cruzinha centre in the Algarve for the Christian conservation project A Rocha. Here she combined conservation research with environmental interpretation for visitors to the Christian environmental centre. She and her husband Colin live in Dunbar. Environmental Brief With this excellent background, Victoria will enable the SRT Project to renew its work on sustainable development, climate change and energy policy which had inevitably been reduced by the demands created by the many new opportunities in biotechnology. She will help in the wider dissemination of SRT's work in the churches, developing its ecumenical role and the Eco-Congregation programme. Her appointment marks an exciting step forward for SRT's work of mission for the Church of Scotland on some of the most crucial issues facing us in the future. Registering Eco-Congregation Congregations which have received the Eco-Congregation Introductory Pack are now encouraged to follow it up by getting the scheme formally accepted by their churches. They should then register with Eco-Congregation and receive the full range of free modules. For more information see out page on the Eco-Congregation Programme in Scotland Back to Contents	In February the media ran delightful photos of a cloned kitten. But despite her cuteness, she was the only live birth in 87 embryos implanted into eight cats used as surrogate mothers. This work funded by a US millionaire pet lover trivialises science. Animal cloning is a serious intervention justified only for very substantial human or animal benefits. Cloning a pet which won't even look the same is not. A stronger case might be the 'knockout' pigs cloned at PPL Therapeutics plc Virginia labs which SRT visited recently. SRT's report to last year's General Assembly said eliminating a gene to overcome the human body's rejection of a transplanted pig organ might be justified if it gave long life for terminal patients and overcame virus transfer risks. It's worth researching, but it remains a very big 'if'. Virgin Birth Embryos? These are just 2 examples of bewildering recent developments in genetic & embryo research. Claims of cloned human embryos were premature, but monkey eggs have now been fertilised chemically to create non-viable 'parthenogenetic' embryos. The US company ACT, with whom SRT is also in discussion, asked if human embryos made this way might be used for stem cell research without ethical objections, since they could never produce live babies? This seems dubious because one might equally object to a process which can only make embryos too deformed to be viable. Fatherless Babies? Haploid cells have been made as a possible way for men who produce no sperm to become fathers. But justified research for a specific disease quickly goes far beyond. Such cells might also allow one member of a lesbian couple to 'father' a child or enable a woman to get pregnant entirely alone. Neither are likely due to genetic imprinting problems, but ethically they raise profound doubts about producing a daughter whose father just never existed. And Dolly the sheep's arthritis? Despite the hype, we can't generalise on one case. Several other mature cloned sheep are OK. But it underlines that while so much basic embryology remains unknown we need care & humility. Back to Contents
Fundamental Flaw in Government Energy Targets The long awaited review on energy policy by the Government's Performance and Innovation Unit has a welcome emphasis on renewable energy resources and energy saving. But a perspective on the very first page threatens many of its laudable aims. While it recognises the need to make very large carbon emission reductions this century, the report says "It would make no sense for the UK to incur large abatement costs, harming its international competitiveness, if other countries were not doing the same." When the crunch comes, UK's economic competitiveness seems more important than overheating the planet, increasing floods and storms, and passing on to our children the legacy of our profligate use of energy. If we wait till competitors like the United States "do the same" we could be waiting longer than we have time for. The needs are pressing now, for the well being of our future generations. SRT Debate on the Issues The highly respected Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution endorsed the need to lower greenhouse gas emissions by 60%. This is the amount calculated by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change in order to stabilise climate change. The Government says, however, that "it would be unwise to take a unilateral decision to meet the RCEP target". At the Edinburgh Science Festival on 9 April, SRT has invited top climate scientist Sir John Houghton and Kevin Dunion, Friends of the Earth Scotland's director, to examine if a Government allegedly committed to evidence-based policy is backing off the advice of the world's best scientists. SRT Energy Study Later this year SRT hopes to begin a major study on energy policy, including the controversial issue of nuclear power and waste disposal. Back to Contents

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