Biotech Industry Reminded That Human Dignity Must Remain Paramount
by Bill Fancher and Jody Brown
April 18, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The biotech industry, which just concluded a huge convention in Chicago, is being challenged by a Christian segment of the industry to avoid ethical lapses."BIO 2006" claims to have drawn nearly 20,000 visitors from 62 countries between April 9 and 12. It was the 14th Annual International Convention of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). Jim Greenwood, president and CEO of BIO, stated afterwards that the gathering allowed the biotech industry to "show the many ways it is innovating to cure and prevent disease, alleviate hunger, and improve the environment."
While BIO 2006 was taking place, the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity -- based in Bannockburn, IL, just north of Chicago -- was on hand to activate the industry's conscience. "We are for biotechnology," explains CBHD's director of communications Joe Carter, "but we believe it needs to be couched in a framework of Christian ethics."
CBHD acknowledges that the use of biological processes to solve problems and to create products has proven to be a boon to humanity over the past 25 years. But "unintended consequences," says the Center, are a reminder that well-intended interventions in natural processes can have "adverse outcomes" -- both environmentally and ethically. Human dignity, says CBHD, must take precedence over important societal goals like economic advancement and scientific progress.
According to Carter, the biotech industry's ethics have lapsed in recent years. He cites two areas of research as examples of that slip: embryonic stem-cell research and human cloning.
"Most scientists will tell you that any cures [resulting from embryonic stem-cell research] are 20 to 30 years away, if it's even possible, because embryonic stem cells are harder to work with than adult stem cells," he says. "Another example is therapeutic cloning. There is no such thing as therapeutic cloning. There are no therapies involved with cloning."
The biotech industry, he asserts, "kind of downplays those solid facts and kind of plays up the cures angle, even though they know it's not true."
Carter believes the industry's ethical slide is a result of the issues being tied to the abortion debate, and because many researchers depend on government tax dollars to subsidize their work. He contends the pro-abortion community has seized these ideas as ways to further dehumanize the unborn.
