From: jonh@david.wheaton.edu (Jonathan Hayward)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Genetic Engineering info needed.
Date: 5 Sep 92 21:37:59 GMT
Organization: Wheaton College, IL

On the subject of generic engineering, REXLEX@linac.fnal.gov writes:
>The Church needs to be laying the ground work in moral guidelines and
>directives BEFORE the snowball gets rolling down the mountain.  An ounce of
>prevention is worth a pound of cure. 
>"The greatest evil is not done in those sordid 'dens of crime' that Dickens
>loved to paint. . . it is conceived and . . .moved, seconded, carried, and
>minuted. . .in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men
>with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need
>to raise their voices."  C.S. Lewis

I would submit that this high suspicion and fear of genetic engineering is
something only justified after much study.  I recognize that Rex is not
spouting off for the sake of spouting off, but must say that I have come to a
different understanding.

I would submit that genetic engineering is a developping technology that is, in
truth, not much different from a technology that is (while certainly not
mastered) much better understood: drugs.

Genetic engineering modifies the instruction codes by which the body generates
the information builds and operates itself.

Drugs leave those instruction codes alone, but on a (usually) temporary basis
modify the codes by which the body builds and operates itself.

Both have substantial potential - if fairly developped - to be extremely
damaging.  Steroid and narcotic abuse are two good examples: the first causes
the body to build itself in a different manner (look like Arnie in months), the
second artifically stimulates the pleasure centers of the brain.

Someone who had complete access to drugs could do pretty much anything (s)he
wanted to with any person accessed.  This includes ordering the person around
like a robot (narcotic pusher/addict relationship), special means of torture,
all sorts of Hitleresque modifications to...

And yet the knowledge of drugs has offered substantial potential to better
society (I'm sorry to exclude Christian Scientists, but I have come to the
belief that the healing God gives will often be through the means of apparently
mundane medical practices, just like protecting my life may sometimes take the
form of a seat belt).  This isn't to say that our culture has advanced due to
drugs, but rather that through appropriate use of drugs lives have been saved
and improved.  If I were an athsmatic, or someone allergic to bee stings, or a
diabetic, or...  (I am none of the above, but members of my families are), I
would be able to tell you personally how much easier it had made my life to be
able to inhale a spray and then breathe normally.

Looking at the book mentioned: covers the topics of abortion, euthenasia,
genetic engineering, and infanticide.

Abortion: the prenatal destruction of a child.
Infanticide: the postnatal destruction of a child.
Euthenasia: the destruction of a patient (usually geriatric).
Genetic engineering: Sorry, I don't see the connection.  The other three are
		     words that describe the destruction of a human life (two
		     out of the three because some people don't like to use the
		     word 'murder').  I suppose it would be possible to use
		     genetic engineering as a means to creatively kill people
		     (replace the pituitary gland with a venom gland, so that
		     when other people start to hit puberty, this child dies of
		     poison), but my best understanding of the work of the
		     biologists working on exploration of genetic engineering
		     is rather in opposite directions.  As a matter of fact,
		     all of the work I know of so far is either pure research
		     or (occasionally) research applied to medical purposes.  I
		     admit that my information is not up to the minute, but I
		     don't see the link between genetic engineering and the
		     other three, with the possible exception of the fact that
		     modern technology is typically involved.

What great and unforeseen evils will come if there is developped the technology
to go into the body of a child and genetically correct cystic fibrosis?

Should the Church also step out to try to stop the 'tremendous manipulative
power' of those who explore the effects of drugs on the human body?

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