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GM Food latest | Cloning and Stem Cells | General Assembly | SRT Home Page | SRT Main Contents Page

WHAT'S NEW? : See the Latest Additions to the SRT Website

The Big Issues
Browse some major issues which SRT is studying - genetic engineering, cloning, environment, energy, climate change, risk, patenting, God and Science ... and much more.
The Government is irresponsible to ignore Public Opinion on GM
The Government is behaving irresponsibly towards the electorate in deciding to go ahead with growing GM maize. Last summer's GM Nation consultation made quite clear that public do not want the present round of GM crops to be grown in Britain at this time. SRT was involved in promoting the debate and believes this will seriously damage future prospects for seeking public views on biotechnology. The Church of Scotland is not opposed to GM crops or GM food in principle, but the scientific justification to grow GM maize is also flawed.
SRT Press Release, 9 March 2004
Genetically Modified Food
The Pros, Cons and underlying issues in the GM debate ... Should we become a GM Nation? ...the Church of Scotland's position on GM ... and more
Cloning and Stem Cells
SRT's extensive pages on the ethics of cloning in animals and humans and on human stem cells.
Engineering Genesis
Read more about SRT's book and the 5 year expert working group study which produced it
SRT General Assembly Reports
Coming soon - SRT's reports to the 2004 Church of Scotland General Assembly

Eco-Congregation Scotland
Eco-Congregation Scotland is a programme to help local churches understand environmental issues and make appropriate practical and spiritual responses, co-organised by SRT and Keep Scotland Beautiful. On our webpages discover what it's about and how it began. Learn how to get your church involved and download the resources you need. See examples of the environmental work Scottish churches are engaging in, and which churches have already won Eco-Congregation Awards. Find out when an Eco-Congregation workshop is coming to your region, and more ...
SRT On-line Information Sheets
SRT produces A4 Information Sheets on a wide range of issues, aimed at presenting some of the key aspects of current ethical and social issues in technology in simple terms for the non-expert.
SRT Bulletin
See the latest November 2003 issue of our on-line Newsletter
SRT Associates
On 31 January 2004 we hosted a successful SRT Associates Gathering in Edinburgh. Find out more about the scheme on our SRT Associates page.

What is the SRT Project?
Find out more about the SRT's Project's origins, work & aims

Navigation
Go to our Contents/Site Map Page to find your way around the SRT website

Highlights : GM Food latest | Cloning and Stem Cells | General Assembly | Back to Contents

Highlights : Genetic Modification of Crops, Food and Animals

The Government is irresponsible to ignore Public Opinion on GM
Press release 9 March 2004

Reflections on the GM Nation Debate
Did the GM Nation Debate give a fair view of the public or was it skewed? SRT gives a considerd opinion on the process and the outcome of the GM Nation Debate.

Should we become a GM Nation
SRT considers the evidence from various quarters and updates whether we in the UK should or should not go ahead with GM crops and also its global status.

Edinburgh Debates GM Crops ... with a Card Game

As part of the UK-wide GM Nation debate, SRT and the Centre for Human Ecology organised a discussion for Edinburgh citizens 18:30-21:00 on Wednesday 18 June, at Edinburgh City Chambers But it was a debate with a difference - playing a card game. To debate the controversial issues of GM crops, we have chosen a new way of democratic discussion called DEMOCS, devised by the New Economics Foundation which sets the discussion in the form of a card game. SRT Director Donald Bruce helped New Economics Foundation prepare the game. "After so much polarisation, we want to take the GM debate back to the people and hear from the ordinary public."

For more information about DEMOCS, see SRT's recent paper The DEMOCS Project - Playing Games to Improve Democracy and the New Economics Foundation website.

For the Church of Scotland's overall position on GM Crops and Food, see our General Assembly Report on GM Food, 1999

The 2003 Assembly considered Can GM and Organic Agriculture Co-exist and what are the ethical implications of liabilities, both ways?

And what about organic? See our report to the 2002 General Assembly reviewing the claims of organic, integrated and intensive agriculture Sustainable Agriculture

GM Food and Labelling : Developments in Europe and USA (2002 Assembly)

A Social Contract for Biotechnology - Shared Visions for Risky Technologies?

Future technological developments concerning food, agriculture and the environment face a gulf of social legitimation from a sceptical public and media. This paper examines agricultural biotechnology in terms of a social contract, assessing the conditions which would be necessary to re-establish a measure of public trust against a climate of suspicion. How far new shared visions can be found for future developments in this field?

GM Animals, Humans and the Future of Genetics
This report was passed by the 2001 Church of Scotland General Assembly, SRT's special 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?

For much more about GM issues see our extensive Genetic Engineering Pages

Highlights : GM Food latest | Cloning and Stem Cells | General Assembly | Back to Contents

Highlights : Cloning and Stem Cells

General Papers

Problems with New Human Cloning Proposals
Comment on Professor Ian Wilmut's article in the New Scientist of 19 February, in which he proposes uses of cloned human embryos and advocates a situation in which producing cloned babies might be justified.
Revised 19 February 2004, immediate release

Cloned Human Embryos - Implications of Korean Scientists' Results
Today Korean scientists presented their detailed results to the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Seattle. SRT Director Dr Bruce was in the audience. The results are genuine and well attested, but it raises important ethical issues.
Released 12 February 2004

Dolly the Sheep : The Death of an Icon

The death of Dolly the cloned sheep is an untimely end to an experiment which rewrote the laws of biology. She became an icon for both the promise and the threat of biotechnology - bringing home, in a way no other recent discovery has, the need to bring ethics into the heart of scientific research. She stressed the urgent need to guide how we should use the biotechnology she represented, and where we should draw the line and say "we could do it, but we're not going to." More than anything she represents a limit of technology - that we must not apply reproductive cloning to humans.
14 February 2003

Stem Cells and Cloning - Medical Potential and Ethical Dilemmas
A paper presented by SRT Director Dr Donald Bruce at the European Commission's major Conference "Stem Cells: Therapies for the Future?", December 2001, Brussels.
European Churches Bioethics Report : Stem Cells and Embryonic Cloning
Discussion paper on stem cell ethics by the Conference of European Churches (CEC) working group on bioethics.
Human Stem Cell Patents would be Unethical
Discussion papers on the patenting of stem cells, prepared by SRT on behalf of the CEC working group on bioethics.
Animal Welfare and Pet Cloning Ethics
A discussion on health, welfare and ageing problems in animal cloning, and the ethical problems of cloning pets.

Cloning

Cloned Babies Unethical says Church of Scotland
Cloned Cat is Cute but Ethically Unacceptable
Cloning pets poses serious animal welfare and ethical concerns.
Mouse Clones Die Young
Research shows that cloned mice can die unusually young with immune problems, liver failure and pneumonia.
Dolly�s Arthritis - Don�t jump to hasty conclusions
SRT calls for a scentific study of animal welfare in cloning
Cautious Welcome for "Knockout" Pigs but Ethical Doubts Remain
Xenotransplantation faces formidable practical and ethical barriers.
Cloned Embryos and Parthenogenesis
Premature claims for the first cloned human embryos
Cloned Babies - the Height of Irresponsibility
The risks of human reproductive cloning

Stem Cells

International Repercussions for proposed Roslin Embryo Cloning Research
Parthenogenetic Primate Stem Cells don�t Solve Ethical Problems of Embryos
Non-viable primate embryos made be fertilising eggs chemically without sperm
Are Embryonic Stem Cells a Step too Far?
SRT Information Sheet
Are Adult or Placental Stem Cells a Viable Alternative to Embryos?
Clearing up some of the confusion
Welcome for Cattle Stem Cells
A possible way ahead without embryos?

Broadcasts

BBC World Service Talking Point on Human Cloning and Stem Cells
The SRT Director answers questions from callers from all over the world on Cloning and Embryonic Stem Cells
BBC Radio 4 Today Programme
SRT Director's interview on Parthenogenetic Stem Cells

More SRT pages on Cloning and Stem Cells

Highlights : GM Food latest | Cloning and Stem Cells | General Assembly | Back to Contents

Coming in April : SRT Report to the 2004 General Assembly, including new report on GM food and an Environmental Policy for the Church of Scotland

Highlights : GM Food latest | Cloning and Stem Cells | General Assembly | Back to Contents

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This page was last revised on 9 March 2004