Human Gene Transfer: Some Theological Contributions to the Ethical Debate

Zitner Aaron , “Humans Need Fewer Genes than Thought to Survive,” Los Angeles Times (February 11, 2001): 1 & A44.

“Genome Project has Sequenced Two-Thirds of Human DNA,” Los Angeles Times (March 30, 2000): B2.

Lee Thomas F. , The Human Genome Project: Cracking the Genetic Code of Life. New York: Plenum, 1991, p. 295.

Juengst Eric , “The NIH ‘Points to Consider’ and the Limits of Human Gene Therapy,” Human Gene Therapy 1 (1990): 426 and 431.

Lucien Richard O.M.I. , What Are They Saying About Genetic Engineering? New York: Paulist, 1992.

Barbour Ian G. , Ethics in an Age of Technology. San Francisco: Harper-Collins, 1993, p. 196.

Zachary Hayes O.F.M. , What Are They Saying About Creation? New York: Paulist, 1980, pp. 7–20; James M. Gustafson. Intersections: Science, Theology, and Ethics. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press, 1996; and Robert J. Nelson, Human Life: A Biblical Perspective for Biioethics. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984, pp. 167-1790.

For an important article on the various meanings of “playing God,” see Verhey Allen “‘Playing God’ and Invoking a Perspective,” The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 20 (1995): 347–364.

Wojtyla Karol ( Paul John II ), Love and Responsibility. Trans. By H.T. Willetts, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1981, p. 246.

Paul John II , “Biological Research and Human Dignity,” Origins 12 (1982): 342.

Paul John II , “The Ethics of Genetic Manipulation,” Origins 13 (1983): 388.

Paul John II , “The Ethics of Genetic Manipulation,” Origins 13 (1983), pp. 388–389.

National Conference of Catholic Bishops/Science and Human Values Committee, “Critical Decisions: Genetic Testing and Its Implications,” Origins 25 (May 2, 1996): 769 & 771-772.

French Anderson W. , “Genetics and Human Malleability,” Hastings Center Report 20 (1990): 21–24.

Walters LeRoy , “Ethical Issues in Human Gene Therapy,” The Journal of Clinical Ethics 2 (1991): 270.

Schaeffer Pamela , “Special report: Body And Sold,” National Catholic Reporter 36 (October 22, 1999): 22. It should also be noted that a similar technique is proposed by the scientists who have recently cloned five piglets on March 5, 2000 in Blacksburg, VA for xenotransplantation of pig organs to humans. These scientists intend to “knock out” a specific gene responsible for adding a sugar group to pig cells. This sugar group is foreign to the human immune system, so the unaltered organs would be rejected in the human body. Additionally, the scientists would introduce through gene transfer three new genes into the cells of the cloned pigs to control the causes of organ rejection. See Marjorie Miller, “5 Pigs Cloned; Transplants to Human Touted,” Los Angeles Times, March 15, 2000, pp. 1 & A11.

Lee , The Human Genome Project, p. 183.

Zimmerman Burke K. , “Human Germ-Line Therapy: The Case for its Developments and Use,” The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 16 (1991): 595.

Johnstone Brian V. , “La tecnología genética: perspectiva teológico-moral,” Moralia 2 (1989): 301.

Elsewhere I have argued that these five themes comprise the horizon of Christian religious intentionality and constitute what is unique or specific about Christian ethics. See Walter James J. “Christian Ethics: Distinctive and Specific,” The American Ecclesiastical Review 169 (1975): 483–484.

See Fuchs Josef S.J. , Christian Morality: The Word Becomes Flesh. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1987, pp. 39–61; and Jan Jans, “God or Man?: Normative Theology in the Instruction Donum Vitae, Louvain Studies 17 (1992): 56-63.

Elmer-Dewit Philip , “The Genetic Revolution,” Time (January 17, 1994): 48.

Barbour Ian G. , Issues in Science and Religion, New York: Harper & Row, 1966, p. 449.

Shannon Thomas A. , What Are They Saying About Genetic Engineering? New York: Paulist, 1985, p. 21

James Gustafson has preferred to describe our role in creation as “participants” rather than as “co-creators.” He argues that the divine continues to order creation, and we can gain some insight into God's purposes by discovering these ordering processes in nature. See his Ethics From a Theocentric Perspective, Vol. II., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984, p. 294.

Hefner Philip , “The Evolution of the Created Co-Creator,” in Peters Ted , Ed., Cosmos as Creation: Theology and Science in Consonance, Nashville: Abingdon, 1989.

Peters Ted , “‘Playing God’ and Germline Intervention,” The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 20 (1995): 377–379; and Ann Lammers & Ted Peters, “Genethics: Implications of the Human Genome Project,” in Paul T. Jersild and Dale A. Johnson, eds., Moral Issues & Christian Response. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich College Publishers, 1993, p. 302.

Callahan Daniel , “Living with the New Biology,” Center Magazine 5 (1972): 4–12.

Shannon , What Are They Saying, p. 37.

Norris W. , Clarke S.J. , “Technology and Man: A Christian Vision,” in Barbour Ian G. , Ed., Science and Religion: New Perspectives on the Dialogue. New York: Harper & Row, 1968, pp. 287–288.

French Anderson W. , “Genetic Engineering and Our Humanness,” Human Gene Therapy 5 (1994): 758.

French Anderson W. , “Genetic Engineering and Our Humanness,” Human Gene Therapy 5 (1994), p. 759. The reverse type of reductionism of the normatively human, of course, is the one adopted by a research biologist at UC San Diego. When the drosophila fly's entire genome was recently mapped and sequenced and then its genes likened to the Rosetta stone for the mapping and sequencing of the human genome, Dr. Charles S. Zukor stated, “We are nothing but a big fly.” See Robert Lee Hots, “Full Sequence of Fly's Genes Deciphered,” Los Angeles Times (March 24, 2000).

See Paul John II , “Biological Research,” p. 342; Idem., “The Ethics of Genetic Manipulation,” p. 388; and Johnstone, “La tecnología genética,” pp. 307-308.

For example, see Rahner Karl S.J. , “The Order of Creation and the Order of Redemption,” in McCool Gerald A. , Ed., A Rahner Reader, New York: Seabury Press, 1975, 1975, pp. 190–196.

Ellul Jacques , The Technological Society, New York: Knopf, 1964.

de Chardin Pierre Teilhard , The Phenomenon of Man, New York: Harper & Row, 1959.

See Rae Scott B. , & Cox Paul M. , Bioethics: A Christian Approach in a Pluralistic Age, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1999, pp. 118–127.

This position is more informed by St. John's Gospel than St. Paul's epistle. In John 9: 1-3, the evangelist writes, “As he went along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, for him to have been born blind?’ ‘Neither he nor his parents sinned,’ Jesus answered, ‘he was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’” I would like to thank my colleague, Jeffrey S. Siker, for pointing out this biblical text to me.

Cole-Turner Ronald , The New Genesis: Theology and the Genetic Revolution, Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, pp. 80–97.

Cimons Marlene , “NIH to Order New reports on Past Gene Therapy Cases,” Los Angeles Times (February 24, 2000): 1 & 14.

An earlier version of this article was published by the New Theology Review.