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Society, Religion and Technology Project

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Church of Scotland

Looking at the ethics of technology for a New Millennium

GENETIC ENGINEERING HOME PAGE

This page is a home page to introduce you to SRT's series of pages on various aspects of genetic engineering and cloning and the ethical issues involved. Issues, like ....

GM Animals, Humans and the Future of Genetics
 SRT's special report to the 2001 Church of Scotland General Assembly to be debated on 22 May, the report examines a range of technologies at the interfact between animal research and human medicine, including cloning, xenotransplantation, GM animals as models of human disease ... mice ... sheep ... primates ... Where do we draw lines and why?
Genetically Modified Food
Find out why the Church of Scotland. Find out why the church has stood out against the popular trend in seeking a balanced position on this most controversial of issues.
Engineering Genesis
SRT's book on the Ethics of Genetic Engineering & Cloning in Non-Human Species

SRT's Biovision 2001 presentation
Can we Find a Shared Vision for Biotechnology?
Dr Bruce was invited to speak at the World Life Sciences Forum on the experience of engaging scientists through SRT's working group and with wider public debate on with GM ethical issues .

Genetically Modified Animals
Engineering Genesis covers a wide range of applications of
GM & Cloning in Animals.
GM Animal Ethics Summary
Making Pharmaceuticals in Animals
GM Animals for Human Disease Models?
Xenotransplantation
Animal Cloning
Patenting Genes

See our related pages on Human Genetics and Embryology
Human Genetics
Human Cloning

Index of SRT's Genetic Engineering and Cloning Pages
Genetic Engineering and Cloning Links

If all this sounds a bit technical, see our page What is Genetic Engineering?, where we try to explain in lay person's terms what it's about.




SRT's Pages on Genetic Engineering and Related Issues
Genetic Engineering Home Page
  • Entry point to SRT's Genetics Pages
    What is Genetic Engineering?
  • A simple introduction
    SRT Information Sheets
  • Outlines of key issues, in simple language
    Animal and Plant Genetic Engineering
  • Applications and Ethical Issues
    Genetically Modified Food Pages
  • SRT's 1999 Report and other papers
    Xenotransplantation
  • Ethics of modified pigs' hearts in humans
    Risk Issues
  • Environmental risks from GMO's
    Patenting Living Organisms and Genes
  • Articles on a highly controversial issue
    • "Engineering Genesis"
  • Preview and Excerpts of SRT's book
    SRT's Working Group
  • About the Study and the group that produced it
    Ordering Information
  • for "Engineering Genesis"

    Cloning Pages - Human and Animal
  • SRT's unique suite of pages on Cloning Issues
    Human Genetics Pages
  • Gene Therapy and Genetic Enhancement

    Genetic Engineering Links
    Links to Other SRT Pages
    • Return to Contents

    Engecov4

    Engineering Genesis? - The SRT Study on Ethics and Genetic Engineering in Non-human Species

    After selling out in 10 months, in November 1999, our publishers Earthscan produced a reprint of our acclaimed book, which we updated to reflect the upheavals in the GM food issues during the 12 months since "Engineering Genesis" was first published. Looking back, we had anticipated much of what had subsequently happened. The book is the result of an expert working group we have run for 5 years from 1993-98, looking at the many questions in this rapidly growing field. The working group comprised senior scientists working in the field as well as specialists in ethics, theology, sociology, public perception and risk. This multi-disciplinary approach is central to SRT's work. It has enabled us to present a unique perspective balancing different viewpoints, and examining the wider social implications as much as the ethical issues. Although primarily about genetic engineering, it also includes the ethical issues and implications of cloning in animals.

    Amongst the subjects we have covered in the book are

    See our Preview and Reviewers' comments on Engineering Genesis
    Contents Page and Chapter Summaries of Engineering Genesis
    Excerpts from Introduction of Engineering Genesis

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    What is Genetic Engineering?

    If all this is a bit baffling, here's a brief introduction to what genetic engineering is all about.

    Ethical Issues in Animal and Plant Genetic Engineering

    To find out more about what sort of ethical issues we are talking about here, look at our page

    Return to Contents

    Genetically Modified Food

     See SRT's pages on one of the hottest issues around in the UK! Despite an initially good reception for modified tomato paste, an enormous controversy has now developed over the expansion of the use of genetically modified food in the UK. To the basic issues of ethics, safety and environmental risk come a sense of scandal over the lack of public accountability in the importing of modified soya and maize from the USA and at the inadequacies of the labelling arrangements for GM foods.

    Genetically Modified Food - General Assembly Report 1999
    The Church of Scotland General Assembly report, prepared by the SRT Project. It gives a critical and in depth look at the main issues, based on the findings of our 5 year expert study on the ethics of genetic engineering, Engineering Genesis.

    Genetically Modified Food - Precaution but not a Moratorium
    Why the Church of Scotland General Assembly voted against a moratorium.

    Genetically Modified Food - Pros and Cons
    A shorter information sheet laying out the case for and against genetically modified food.

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    GM Animals

    We review the whole area of animal genetic modification in depth in our book Engineering Genesis. See our Summary of GM Animal ethical findings. Most animal applications are not for conventional animal meat, milk and egg production - so far GM has offers no great advantages over selective breeding. Most developments have been in novel applications of GM animals in medicine.

    Making Pharmaceuticals in Animals

    Pharming is a term used for producing pharmaceutically useful proteins in sheep's milk, and in general it does not raise major ethical problems. Our Press Release on Genetically Modified Chicken Eggs for Anti-bodies reviews the ethical and welfare implcations of the Roslin Institute's new research announcement into genetically modifying, and possibly also cloning, chickens so that their eggs produce human anti-bodies for cancer treatment. But other GM applications are much more contentious ...

    How far can we use Animals for Human Disease Models?

    The biggest use of genetic modification in animals is in mice for medical genetic research. Hundreds of thousands of mice are modifed either by adding or knocking out genes discovered in the Human Genome Project, to find out what they do, and adding genes to induce human diseases, to understand and model their process and to test possible therapies. This is ethically contentious enough, but what about cystic fibrosis in a sheep or Parkinson's disease in a monkey? See our press release on GM Monkeys

    Xenotransplantation - Pigs Hearts in Humans?

    In early 2000, the announcement that pigs have been cloned for the first time highlighted afresh the complex ethical issues surrounding the novel possibility of transplanting genetically modified animal organs into humans - known as xenotransplantation. See SRT's short comment piece Cautious Welcome for Pig Cloning , and our in depth
    SRT Report on Xenotransplantation. At present the technology is only at a very experimental stage, concentrating on the pigs hearts for use in humans, but it is at just this point where we need to think about the ethical implications. Genetically Modified Animals
    An information sheet laying out some of the ethical issues in genetically modified animals.

    Return to Contents

    Cloning

     When Dolly, the lamb cloned from the cells of an adult ewe, burst on to the world stage, it met a fury of speculation and debate. Because of our contact with Ian Wilmut through our working group, SRT was already in a unique position to offer informed comment on the ethical implications. Cloning is not the same thing as genetic engineering, but the two are closely related. Since May 1996, SRT has been developing an extensive set of web pages on the various aspects of cloning in animals, humans and its medical applications. What are the issues at stake? Are we getting steamed up too much about human cloning, or is this indeed one of the biggest technological issues of the century? And have we lost sight of the animal issues amid the media hype? And how should we react to proposals to clone human embryos as a means towards growing replacement human cells for degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's? First look at our Cloning Home Page.

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    Should we allow Patenting of Living Organisms and Genes?

     One of the most controversial questions is what we as a society should allow about the commercial application of the bewildering range of inventions and ideas which are coming out of the world's research laboratories. Do we have any effective say in what is going on, or is it mostly in the hands of private business or impenetrable bureaucracy? This has come to a focus on the question of whether we should allow the patenting of living organisms and sections of the genome of ourselves and other creatures. This is currently allowed in the USA but hotly disputed in Europe. For an exploration of the issues, see our Patenting Pages

    SRT's Human Genetics Pages

     Although we have not done so much work on the application of genetic engineering to humans, you can find some information in our Human Genetics page :

    Return to Contents

    Genetic Engineering and Cloning Links

    Here are a few links to sites worth visiting on genetic engineering and cloning issues

    Return to Contents

    FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

    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.

    We'd also welcome any comments you may have. We don't claim to have said the last word!
    If you want to send us a comment or obtain further information or receive our latest Newsletter,

    email us at :
    mailto:srtp@srtp.org.uk

    or send an ordinary letter or fax to :

    Dr.Donald M.Bruce,
    Society, Religion and Technology Project,
    , 121 George Street, Edinburgh, EH2 4YN, Scotland.
    tel. +44 (0)131-240 2250, fax +44 (0)131-240 2239,
    email address : srtp@srtp.org.uk


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