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Society, Religion and Technology Project Church of Scotland Looking at the ethics of technology for a New Millennium

SRT REPORTS TO THE

1997 GENERAL ASSEMBLY

For the full press release of the SRT Project's parent board , click on Full Press Release of the Report of the Board of National Mission .

For more general information about the 1997 General Assembly see the Church of Scotland's main website.

A new study on Risk is being set up by the Church’s SRT (Society Religion and Technology) Project, considering what factors underlie “the muddled and disturbing way we cope with the idea of hazards and uncertainty from new technology.

The SRT Project’s work on environment, patenting of living organisms, climate change and biotechnology is summarised and the report announces a conference on psychology and Christianity in Edinburgh on September 27 this year.

A summary of a submission by the Director of the SRT Project on a draft directive to the EC and European Parliament about patenting and living organisms is given as an Appendix (in the Blue Book).

It calls for a forum for public comment on ethical matters in biotechnology; consideration of a separate system of intellectual property rights distinguishing between living creatures and non-living things and the setting up of a European body to debate the ethical acceptability of biotechnological inventions.

Living organisms themselves should not be patentable, whether genetically modified or not. An animal, plant or micro-organism owes its creation ultimately to God not human endeavour.

Churches are becoming increasingly concerned, it adds, that developments in biotechnology are making it more possible to separate and isolate the functions of living organisms both human and non-human from the organism as a whole.

Turning to animals, the report comments that there are many potential uses which are degrading and uncaring, whether or not the animal suffers pain or physical handicap.

“Third world implications” had not been recognised in the draft directive and “serious ethical concerns” would be raised if research organisations and trans-national corporations were granted patents without recompense to the farming communities from whose lands the plant came.

Some patents could disadvantage the very people who need most urgently to gain from the benefits which biotechnology can bring and widen the gap of rich and poor still further.

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This page has been produced by the Society Religion and Technology Project of the Church of Scotland. For more about our work on other issues, see our Other SRT Project pages, or our SRT Publications List.

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