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ENGINEERING GENESIS |
| SRT's new book "Engineering Genesis" has arrived, the culmination of a 5 year expert study on the ethical and social issues being raised by current developments in genetic engineering and cloning, in animals, plants and micro-organisms. Edited by SRT's Director Dr Donald Bruce and his wife Ann, it is published by the leading UK environmental publisher Earthscan. Aimed at both secular and Christian markets, SRT hopes this will be a landmark study on what has become one of the biggest topics of debate at the end of the Millennium. |
This web page gives extended extract from the Introduction, explaining the context of the book and how we went about our study
Engineering Genesis - Excerpts from the Introduction
Excerpt from the Introduction
Not many years ago, genetic engineering was just one academic area among many in the biological sciences. Within a surprisingly short period of time, the ability to isolate and transfer genes within and across different species has turned into one of the biggest growth areas in scientific research the world over, and one of the hottest areas of ethical debate. New discoveries are being announced almost by the week, and a technology is rapidly emerging whose products and applications are beginning to appear in our society. The prospect of genetically engineered food on our tables, crop plants in our fields and pigs' hearts in our bodies has either become reality, or has necessitated some serious ethical thinking about what should and should not become reality. The most spectacular example of the impact of biotechnology has been the unprecedented worldwide stir over the implications of cloning, following the breakthrough in sheep nuclear transfer at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh. But it arose out of a piece of genetic engineering whose novelty in many ways encapsulates the revolution which is taking place.
Many people suffer from the debilitating lung disease emphysema. This is caused by a genetic defect, in which the lungs do not make enough of a protein called alpha–1–antitrypsin (AAT), which regulates the amount of an enzyme in the lung wall. The result is damage to the lung wall, which can eventually be fatal. Genetic engineering could offer at least three alternative methods for treating the disease, involving humans, animals or plants. In theory, it might be possible to go to the root of the problem using human gene therapy, attempting to incorporate enough of a non-defective gene into the lungs of the patient to increase the production of the protein. Such an approach is probably a long way off, but, as an alternative, genetic modification could be used to create novel ways of producing the protein in another biological organism, on behalf of humans. It could then be purified and administered to patients as a conventional drug. Both animals and plants might offer this possibility.
In the 1980s, scientists at the Roslin Institute hit on the idea of producing AAT in the milk of sheep, by introducing a human gene into the sheep which 'codes for' this protein (that is, it sends a message which tells the body to produce it) in the mammary gland. The result was the sheep known as Tracy, and her progeny at PPL Therapeutics. Sheep produced in this way are now producing the protein for clinical trials. Roslin astonished the world in early 1997 when they announced they had cloned a sheep from the mammary gland cells of a ewe. Although Dolly became a famous celebrity overnight, she was really a sideline to the main research aim. This was to apply the technique of nuclear transfer to produce transgenic farm animals from a cell culture, something which had not hitherto been possible. This method happens also to produce cloned animals. A few months later Roslin and PPL Therapeutics produced the transgenic cloned sheep Polly from a cell line of genetically modified foetal tissue. This result may prove the precursor of many new possibilities for performing genetic modification in animals.
Meanwhile at the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI) at Invergowrie, near Dundee, another breakthrough has opened up a way to produce vaccines, or therapeutic or industrial proteins, in plant tissue. This is achieved by genetically modifying a normal plant virus. The modified virus acts on the plant in such a way that it causes significant quantities of the relevant protein to be made in the leaves or other tissues. After harvesting the plant, the protein can be extracted and purified. This offers a straightforward way of producing a wide range of pharmaceutically useful proteins, and, perhaps, AAT.
Biotechnology - Boom or Bust?
These examples of novel medical applications of genetic engineering represent the tip of an iceberg in a field that is growing at a bewildering rate. After the chemical revolution in the second half of the twentieth century, for many people biotechnology offers the next great hope in the quest for human security in food, resources and wealth. It is easy to wax lyrical about the potential food, health, environmental and economic benefits from these new developments, but at the same time neglect their important ethical, social and spiritual implications. We are faced with an exponential growth in population, the diminution of agricultural land and other resources, and threats to the environment. Many politicians, scientists and industrialists look hopefully to genetic engineering to play a key role in feeding, resourcing and cleaning up past spillages and spoilages in the environment for a better future. In order to feed the burgeoning populations of the less developed world in the first half of the next century, some see it as inevitable that we will need to use genetic techniques to derive new drought resistant or high productivity crops, or new generations of seeds which will be naturally resistant to fungi, viruses and pests, with reduced need for spraying with artificial chemicals. Marker genes are assisting conventional selective breeding methods in animals and plants to identify and control important traits for development. Many see genetic engineering at the cutting edge of future resources, the environmental crisis and medical benefits, and a major future source of economic growth and jobs.
The rhetoric of their potential for some areas of human life needs to be balanced against the effects on other, equally vital, aspects of human society and also on the very animal and plant kingdoms to which we are looking to provide us with this bonanza. Should we be doing these sorts of things to our fellow creatures with whom we share the planet? How do we balance the harm we might do to them against the benefits to ourselves? And to what extent are applications to animals a short step to questionable uses in humans? Do we know as much as we think we know? The ideals of science practised in humility and with due caution can easily be pushed aside by academic success and commercial prospects. Exaggerated claims can give the impression of having the technology more in our control than we actually do. The recent history of science based technology suggests that new technological developments often suffer from myopia, and seldom turn out to be quite as straightforward or utopian as their proponents and backers suggest. There are concerns that we may be putting ourselves unnecessarily at risk in proceeding too fast after the goals we can see, and turning a blind eye to the problems we would rather not see.
As we are now seeing with the motor car, once we develop social dependencies on a new technology, it becomes very difficult to change if unforeseen problems start to emerge later. It is pertinent to ask to what extent our society has, as it were, swallowed whole certain perspectives and assumptions that technological progress is the only possible way forward, without pausing to ask if there are better alternatives. Are we indeed, as some say, 'playing God', violating something which we should not be seeking to change in the natural order? Will it open up a Pandora's box which will cause misery and oppression of the poor, instead of the promised riches and blessings? Innovation requires social approval, and a wider acceptance of the challenges to lifestyle and values which it will bring. A society should always have the right to say 'yes' or 'no'.
For some the prospect of technological change is a matter of concern and insecurity – a threat posed by the new, the upsetting of the established patterns, the fear of the unknown, and the uneasiness over what would happen if it went wrong. For others it creates enthusiasm – seeing new potential and welcoming the change. For the latter, the concerns may be seen as the irrational fears of pessimists, or those opposed in principle to new technology, or who are not prepared to change with the times, who harbour romantic notions of alternative solutions or past ages that never were. A common attitude in scientific and official circles asserts that we should be cool and rational about these matters, and not be carried away with emotional concerns; that the public, once educated, will warmly embrace the new developments. Against this rather dismissive view, however, there is also a growing awareness that there could indeed be something real behind the misgivings which many people express, a true intuition which represents something that mere reason is oblivious to. There is also a belated appreciation that the views of the proponents of biotechnology are not so cool and rational after all, but are laden with many value judgements of their own.
Last, but by no means least, there is the spiritual dimension to be considered. Where do these developments leave us spiritually? If human life is more than material growth and scientific progress, we need to ask how the latter will affect our awareness and our relationship to God, our fellow human beings and the rest of the creation. The question of what we can do can only be truly answered having first asked what we should be.
How We Approached the Study
In December 1993, the Society, Religion and Technology (SRT) Project of the Board of National Mission of the Church of Scotland (see Appendix 4) set up a multidisciplinary working group to look at ethical issues in the genetic engineering of non-human species. Its members were chosen for their expertise in a variety of fields relevant to the issues. These included specialists in the genetics of animals, plants and micro-organisms, in animal welfare, developing world applications, issues of risk and public perception, sociology, the environment and ethics. With this spread of expertise and viewpoints, the group has examined many of the complex issues which the advances in genetic engineering are bringing to light, including a good many of the questions alluded to above. The report does not seek to follow any one theory of moral philosophy, in a logical and worked-through set of arguments. Rather, it presents the iterative process of a diverse group of people studying issues, where each has brought the insights of their different disciplines to bear.
Our aim has been to strike a balance between the extremes of optimism or pessimism in which these issues are often framed in the media, and to draw on the insights which such a varied group brings. Our membership included those enthusiastic for and those sceptical of the technology, and others who approached it undecided. In this sense, our work represents something of a microcosm of the broader societal debate, while, admittedly, comprising a set of articulate experts who are not a typical slice of society. We know of no one who would not feel they were a lay person in at least some of the diverse fields we discussed. Consequently, we have tried to write for a general, non-expert readership, providing enough technical content to allow an appreciation of the science without going into undue detail. We have sought to explain the basic concepts of both genetics and ethics, and to cut to the minimum the jargon with which both spheres abound! Having aimed at a wider audience, we hope that this book will have a special appeal for those who are more directly engaged with these fields – for scientists, for students of genetics, agriculture, environment, medicine, ethics and theology, and also for industrialists, environmental organisations and politicians.
The study has been initiated by the Church of Scotland, and while this book stems from a basic Christian theological motivation, our aim is much wider than the Christian community. This is reflected in the mixed composition and way of working of the group. Indeed, one of the most important factors of our study has been the process of discussion and debate which has been generated by the different perspectives, beliefs, disciplines and experiences of the group members. This has, we believe, provided a richness and balance to our study which makes it unique among other works in this growing field. We present this book not so much to declare our agreed positions – for we have often agreed to differ – but rather as the result of our process of learning together. None of us was an expert in more than one facet of a brilliant diamond of issues. For each it has proved a valuable and stimulating journey of understanding, stretching our minds and our hearts into unfamiliar territory, but usually with at least one of us who knew how to read the map at any given point on the trail.
It is an unfinished task, for several reasons. Firstly, we could not possibly cover all the ground we would have liked, and have had to be selective in our explorations. There is much uncharted territory, and probably one or two dragons we have missed. Secondly, the technology is moving so fast that we are only too aware that by the time this text is read, many aspects will have moved on. Two vital issues emerged at a relatively late stage in our drafting, the explosion of interest in mammalian cloning and the importation into Europe of genetically modified soya and maize. Tomorrow's developments may well raise new issues, and some of the old ones may in time seem less relevant. But today, we do not have the benefit of this hindsight!
The study is also unfinished in a third and perhaps most important way. We have not written the last word on any of these issues. We present our work to offer guidance and insight to those puzzled by the complexity of the issues, and who are seeking some stimulating and well informed views as well as some direction for how to look at these issues for themselves. But we also present them as an continuing process, as an invitation for you, the reader, to join in an ongoing dialogue with us. Your thoughts may add to the continuing reflection process. So we invite you to reflect with us, and, if you will, to share your reactions and thoughts with us, as we have sought to share ours with you.
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