[Paleopsych] CBC: A Manifesto on Biotechnology and Human Dignity
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A Manifesto on Biotechnology and Human Dignity
The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network
http://www.thecbc.org/redesigned/manifesto.php
If you agree with this statement, [15]click here to join with Chuck
Colson, James Dobson, Joni Eareckson Tada, Dr. Richard Land, and
the other signatories listed above in signing on to the Biotech
Manifesto.
"Our children are creations, not commodities."President George W. Bush
"If any one age really attains, by eugenics and scientific education,
the power to make its descendants what it pleases, all men who live
after are the patients of that power," slaves to the "dead hand of the
great planners and conditioners." C. S. Lewis
1. The Issue
The debates over human cloning have focused our attention on the
significance for the human race of what has been called "the
biotech century." Biotechnology raises great hopes for
technological progress; but it also raises profound moral
questions, since it gives us new power over our own nature. It
poses in the sharpest form the question: What does it mean to be
human?
2. Biotechnology and Moral Questions
We are thankful for the hope that biotechnology offers of new
treatments for some of the most dreaded diseases. But the same
technology can be used for good or ill. Scientists are already
working in many countries to clone human beings, either for embryo
experiments or for live birth.
In December 2002, the Raelians, a religious cult that believes the
human race was cloned by space aliens, announced that a baby they
called "Eve" was the first cloned human. But it is not just the
fringe cults that are involved in cloning; that same month,
Stanford University announced a project to create cloned embryos
for medical experimentation.
Before long, scientists will also be able to intervene in human
nature by making inheritable genetic changes. Biotechnology
companies are already staking claims to parts of the human body
through patents on human genes, cells, and other tissues for
commercial use. Genetic information about the individual may make
possible advances in diagnosis and treatment of disease, but it
may also make those with "weaker" genes subject to discrimination
along eugenic lines.
3. The Uniqueness of Humanity and Its Dignity
These questions have led many to believe that in biotechnology we
meet the moral challenge of the twenty-first century. For the
uniqueness of human nature is at stake. Human dignity is
indivisible: the aged, the sick, the very young, those with
genetic diseases--every human being is possessed of an equal
dignity; any threat to the dignity of one is a threat to us all.
This challenge is not simply for Christians. Jews, Muslims, and
members of other faiths have voiced the same concerns. So, too,
have millions of others who understand that humans are distinct
from all other species; at every stage of life and in every
condition of dependency they are intrinsically valuable and
deserving of full moral respect. To argue otherwise will lead to
the ultimate tyranny in which someone determines who are deemed
worthy of protection and those who are not.
4. Why This Must Be Addressed
As C. S. Lewis warned a half-century ago in his remarkable essay
The Abolition of Man, the new capacities of biotechnology give us
power over ourselves and our own nature. But such power will
always tend to turn us into commodities that have been
manufactured. As we develop powers to make inheritable changes in
human nature, we become controllers of every future generation.
It is therefore vital that we undertake a serious national
conversation to ensure a thorough understanding of these
questions, and their answers, so that our democratic institutions
will be able to make prudent choices as public policy is shaped
for the future.
5. What We Propose
We strongly favor work in biotechnology that will lead to cures
for diseases and disabilities, and are excited by the promise of
stem cells from adult donors and other ethical avenues of
research. We see that around the world other jurisdictions have
begun to develop ethical standards within which biotech can
flourish. We note that Germany, which because of its Nazi past has
a unique sensitivity to unethical science and medicine, has
enacted laws that prohibit all cloning and other unethical biotech
options. We note that the one international bioethics treaty, the
European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, outlaws all
inheritable genetic changes and has been amended to prohibit all
cloning.
_____________________________________________________________
We therefore seek as an urgent first step a comprehensive ban on
all human cloning and inheritable genetic modification. This is
imperative to prevent the birth of a generation of malformed
humans (animal cloning has led to grotesque failures), and the
establishment of vast experimental embryo farms with millions of
cloned humans..
We emphasize: All human cloning must be banned. There are those
who argue that cloning can be sanctioned for medical
experimentation--so-called "therapeutic" purposes. No matter what
promise this might hold--all of which we note is speculative--it
is morally offensive since it involves creating, killing, and
harvesting one human being in the service of others. No civilized
state could countenance such a practice. Moreover, if cloning for
experiments is allowed, how could we ensure that a cloned embryo
would not be implanted in a womb? The Department of Justice has
testified that such a law would be unenforceable.
We also seek legislation to prohibit discrimination based on
genetic information, which is private to the individual. We seek a
wide-ranging review of the patent law to protect human dignity
from the commercial use of human genes, cells, and other tissue.
We believe that such public policy initiatives will help ensure
the progress of ethical biotechnology while protecting the
sanctity of human life.
We welcome all medical and scientific research as long as it is
firmly tethered to moral truth. History teaches that whenever the
two have been separated, the consequence is disaster and great
suffering for humanity.
(Signed)
Carl Anderson
Supreme Knight
[16]Knights of Columbus
Gary Bauer
President
[17]American Values
Robert H. Bork
Senior Fellow
[18]The American Enterprise Institute
Nigel M. de S. Cameron, Ph.D.
Dean, [19]Wilberforce Forum
Director, [20]Council for Biotechnology Policy
Dr. Ben Carson
Neurosurgeon
[21]Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dept. of Neurosurgery
Samuel B. Casey
Executive Director & CEO
[22]Christian Legal Society
Charles W. Colson
Chairman
[23]The Wilberforce Forum, [24]Prison Fellowship Ministries
Ken Connor
President
[25]Family Research Council
Paige Comstock Cunningham, J.D.
Board Chair and former President
[26]Americans United for Life
Dr. James Dobson
[27]Focus on the Family
Dr. Maxie D. Dunnam
[28]Asbury Theological Seminary
C. Christopher Hook, M.D.
[29]Mayo Clinic
Deal W. Hudson
Editor and Publisher
[30]CRISIS magazine
Dr. Henk Jochemsen
Director
[31]Lindeboom Institute
Dr. D. James Kennedy
Senior Pastor
[32]Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church
Dr. John Kilner
President
[33]Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity
C. Everett Koop, M.D., Sc.D.
[34]C. Everett Koop Institute at Dartmouth
Former U.S. Surgeon General
Bill Kristol
Chairman, [35]Project for The New American Century
Editor, [36]The Weekly Standard
Jennifer Lahl
Executive Director
[37]The Center for Bioethics and Culture
Dr. Richard D. Land
President
[38]The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
of the Southern Baptist Convention
Dr. C. Ben Mitchell
[39]Trinity International University
Editor, [40]Ethics & Medicine
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
President
[41]The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Fr. Richard Neuhaus
[42]Institute for Religion and Public Life
David Prentice, Ph.D.
Professor, Life Sciences
[43]Indiana State University
Sandy Rios
President
[44]Concerned Women for America
Dr. Adrian Rogers
Senior Pastor
[45]Bellevue Baptist Church
Dr. William Saunders
Senior Fellow & Director, Center for Human Life & Bioethics
[46]Family Research Council
Rev. Louis P. Sheldon
Chairman
[47]Traditional Values Coalition
David Stevens, M.D.
Executive Director
[48]Christian Medical Association
Joni Eareckson Tada
President
[49]Joni and Friends
Paul Weyrich
Chairman and CEO
[50]The Free Congress Foundation
Ravi Zacharias
President
[51]Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
Biotech Manifesto Signature Form
If you agree with this statement, [52]click here to join with Chuck
Colson, James Dobson, Joni Eareckson Tada, Dr. Richard Land, and the
other signatories listed above in signing on to the Biotech Manifesto.
References
15. http://www.thecbc.org/redesigned/manifesto_signer.php
16. http://www.kofc.org/
17. http://www.ouramericanvalues.org/
18. http://www.aei.org/
19. http://www.wilberforce.org/
20. http://www.biotechpolicy.org/
21. http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/hopkinshospital
22. http://www.clsnet.org/
23. http://www.wilberforce.org/
24. http://www.pfm.org/
25. http://www.frc.org/
26. http://www.unitedforlife.org/
27. http://www.family.org/
28. http://www.ats.wilmore.ky.us/
29. http://www.mayo.edu/
30. http://www.crisismagazine.com/
31. http://www.lindeboominstituut.nl/
32. http://www.crpc.org/
33. http://www.chbd.org/
34. http://www.dartmouth.edu/dms/koop/index.shtml
35. http://www.newamericancentury.org/
36. http://www.weeklystandard.com/
37. http://www.thecbc.org/
38. http://www.erlc.com/
39. http://www.tiu.edu/
40. http://www.ethicsandmedicine.com/
41. http://www.sbts.edu/
42. http://www.firstthings.com/
43. http://www.indstate.edu/
44. http://www.cwfa.org/
45. http://www.bellevue.org/
46. http://www.frc.org/
47. http://www.traditionalvalues.org/
48. http://www.cmdahome.org/
49. http://www.joniandfriends.org/
50. http://www.freecongress.org/
51. http://www.gospelcom.net/rzim
52. http://www.thecbc.org/redesigned/manifesto_signer.php
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