GenEthics and Religion

Description

Human gene and cell technology is a diverse and rapidly evolving field of research. As genes represent the 'blueprint' of an organism, their analysis and manipulation is a challenge to our understanding of human nature. Stem cell research, genetic testing, gene therapy, therapeutic and reproductive cloning - all these fields of application have been raising fundamental ethical and religious-theological questions: When does human life begin? Should human beings be allowed to interfere with natural procreation or to manipulate the genome of their own species? Is genetic engineering tantamount to 'playing God'? Based on the symposium 'GenEthics and Religion' held in Basel, Switzerland in May 2008, this volume examines the role religion can play in establishing ethical guidelines to protect human life in the face of rapid advances in biology and especially gene technology. It does so in a multidisciplinary way with contributions by philosophers, theologians, human geneticists, and several bioethicists representing the Christian, Jewish, Islamic and Buddhist perspectives. The essays illustrating a diversity of views and expressing the problems and self-critical reflectiveness of religious ethicists have been brought up to date and discuss the importance of religious ethics in society’s discourse on gene technology.

Sujets

• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: S. Karger AG
• Date de parution: 21 mai 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9783805589741
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

GenEthics and Religion
GenEthics and Religion
Editors
G. Pfleiderer Basel
G. Brahier Basel
K. Lindpaintner Newark, Del.
_____________________ G. Pfleiderer Department of Theology University of Basel Missionsstrasse 17a CH-4056 Basel Switzerland
_____________________ G. Brahier Department of Theology University of Basel Missionsstrasse 17a CH-4056 Basel Switzerland
_____________________ K. Lindpaintner SDIX 111 Pencader Drive Newark, DE 19702 USA
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
GenEthics and religion / volume editors, G. Pfleiderer, G. Brahier, K. Lindpaintner.
p. ; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-3-8055-8973-4 (hard cover: alk. paper)
1. Genetic engineering––Religious aspects––Congresses. I. Pfleiderer, Georg. II. Brahier, G. (Gabriela) III. Lindpaintner, K. (Klaus)
[DNLM: 1. Genetics––ethics––Congresses. 2. Bioethical Issues––Congresses. 3. Religion and Medicine––Congresses. QU 450 G3272 2010]
QH438.7.G4116 2010
205'.64957––dc22
2010014350
Bibliographic Indices. This publication is listed in bibliographic services, including Current Contents ® and Index Medicus.
Disclaimer. The statements, opinions and data contained in this publication are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publisher and the editor(s). The appearance of advertisements in the book is not a warranty, endorsement, or approval of the products or services advertised or of their effectiveness, quality or safety. The publisher and the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content or advertisements.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated into other languages, reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, microcopying, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
© Copyright 2010 by S. Karger AG, P.O. Box, CH-4009 Basel (Switzerland)
www.karger.com
Printed in Switzerland on acid-free and non-aging paper (ISO 9706) by Reinhardt Druck, Basel
ISBN 978-3-8055-8973-4
e-ISBN 978-3-8055-8974-1
Contents
Introduction
Beyond Playing God: Critical Religious GenEthics for Pluralistic Societies
Pfleiderer, G.; Brahier, G. (Basel); Lindpaintner, K. (Newark, Del.)
Foundations: Hermeneutic and Conceptional Reflections
Genes – Cells – Interpretations: What Hermeneutics Can Add to Genetics and to Bioethics
Rehmann-Sutter, C. (Lübeck)
Controversies about Human Dignity: Implications for Biotechnology
Childress, J.F. (Charlottesville, Va.)
The Function of Religion in GenEthical Debates: Critical Analyses
Global Bioethics, Theology, and Human Genetic Engineering: The Challenge of Refashioning Human Nature in the Face of Moral and Religious Pluralism
Engelhardt, Jr., H.T. (Houston, Tex.)
Eschewing Images of Man: Against Anthropological Reductionism in Bioethics
Graf, F.W. (Munich)
Children, Bodies, Life: Ethics as the Churches’ Biopolitics
Gehring, P. (Darmstadt)
On the Ethics Debate between Theologians, Scientists and Doctors: Experiences, Observations and Commentaries of a Medical Geneticist
Müller, H. (Basel)
Examining Constructive Efforts of Religious GenEthics (I): Christian Theological GenEthics
‘Biopower’ – Ethical and Theological Considerations
Mieth, D. (Erfurt)
First Sheep, Then Human Beings? Theological and Ethical Reflections on the Use of Gene Technology
Schockenhoff, E. (Freiburg)
Is the Human Genome Sacred?
Peters, T. (Berkeley, Calif.)
Examining Constructive Efforts of Religious GenEthics (II): Jewish, Islamic, and Buddhist GenEthics
The Jewish Perspective on GenEthics
Green, R.M. (Hanover, N.H.)
Human Genetic Technologies and Islamic Bioethics
Nor, S.N.M. (Kuala Lumpur)
Buddhism and Human Genome Research
Ratanakul, P. (Nakornpathom)
Author Index
Subject Index
Introduction
Pfleiderer G, Brahier G, Lindpaintner K (eds): GenEthics and Religion. Basel, Karger, 2010, pp 1–11
______________________
Beyond Playing God: Critical Religious GenEthics for Pluralistic Societies
Georg Pfleiderer a Gabriela Brahier a Klaus Lindpaintner b
a Department of Theology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland; b SDIX, Newark, Del., USA
Playing God?
Human gene technology or human gene engineering is a diverse and rapidly developing sphere of research and advanced medical technology. It includes stem cell research, genetic testing, therapeutic or reproductive cloning. Since genes are something like the blueprints of organisms, genetic engineering is a challenge to our understanding of human nature. Thus, from the early days of genetic research, projects have been watched carefully and often suspiciously by ethicists. Among this new caste of bioethicists dealing with these problems theologians have played a prominent role. Not surprisingly: as fundamental questions are raised with regard to whether human beings should be allowed to manipulate their own species, a religious dimension of human actions seems to be touched. Is genetic engineering by definition playing God? And if so, why is it fundamentally different from other areas where human ingenuity profoundly affects our lives?
The volume examines questions pertaining to the complex relationship between the ethics of gene technology (moniker: genethics) and religion. It does so in a critical and multidisciplinary way, and with reference to several of the major world religions. The volume contains contributions by philosophers, by scholars of divinity, and by bioethicists with Christian, Jewish, Islamic, and Buddhist background.

In this introduction, use has been made of unpublished abstracts which were submitted for the conference by the following authors: J. Childress, H.T. Engelhardt Jr., S.N.M. Nor, P. Ratanakul, and C. Rehmann-Sutter. Note that this text, in part, contains literal quotes from these abstracts as well as from the authors’ articles contained in this volume; for ease of reading, these quotes have not been set in quotation marks.
Foundations: Hermeneutic and Conceptional Reflections
Ethical evaluations should start with hermeneutical reflections, particularly if the genome is the object of interpretation. This is at least the suggestion of Christoph Rehmann-Sutter . The operative function of the genome for the organism is both a biological and a descriptive problem. The respective terminology, used not only by journalists but also by scientists, is full of metaphors. Textual metaphors are most common: genes are described as texts , instructions , messages , blueprints or programs . The textual imagery, however, seems to be misleading: the genome is not an author-subject, neither is it – as at least some of these metaphors suggest – strictly prescriptive or deterministic. Thus, Rehmann-Sutter pleads for a shift towards a new metaphor: systems . A systems approach to genomics opens the way for new images: DNA as a big library that can be used in many different ways and whose content depends on the context of use; or the multifunctionality of genes being compared to words that have different meanings. He argues that the transition from program genomics to systems genomics has implications for central topics of bioethics like genetic testing and counseling, or the moral perception of human embryos.
Critical reflection must also be used regarding the normative concepts of genethics. One of the most frequently used normative concepts is human dignity. The concept suggests an absolute, intrinsic, and ontological value of human beings and their nature. Opponents argue that this is a classical proof of naturalistic fallacy or of an overabundance of normative rhetoric. In order to avoid both, James Childress proposes a clear analysis of the concept. He distinguishes between (1) human dignity as a standard of rights and duties, and (2) human dignity as a standard of virtue. The first concept often goes along with the Kantian prohibition of instrumentalization. While the first would refer more to the person as the object of a gene-technological manipulation or treatment, the second is more focused on the character – the virtues or vices – of the users or providers of human engineering.
Although Childress himself favors a reflected and cautious use of the first understanding of the concept, he highlights at least to two problems: what is the added value of the concept compared, e.g., with more rational concepts such as autonomy? And how does the concept work as a normative ethical instrument in answering concrete bioethical questions? For instance: it is hard to make the case that human reproductive cloning necessarily involves the kind of instrumentalization that human dignity excludes. Human reproductive cloning does not necessarily involve treating offspring merely as means or instruments to other ends. The argument shows that it seems to be difficult to concentrate on the perspective of the object-person.
Concerning the virtue-concept Childress refers strongly to Leon Kass and the (US) President's Council on Bioethics (during the Bush Administration, suspended in 2009 by President Obama). In Kass’ concept human dignity and its violation is based on a fundamentally human pre-reflective moral wisdom of repugnance. Exam