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Task force begins to spell out concerns with bioengineering

3/19/2003

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - United Methodists must address the threats that genetic engineering poses to biodiversity and agricultural diversity, according to the Bioethics Task Force of the church's social action agency.

At what was most likely the group's last face-to-face meeting, task force members also approved their document on embryonic stem cell research.

Meeting March 14-15, the task force continued working on a report that will go to the Board of Church and Society, which created the group at the direction of the General Conference. The board will use the task force's findings in making its own report to the legislative assembly in 2004. The task force's mission is to offer direction on ethics related to fast-moving scientific developments in such fields as human cloning, embryonic stem-cell research and genetically modified plant and animal life. The group includes scientists, ethicists and others.

"In the tapestry of God's creation, all life reflects the beauty of extravagant diversity," the first draft of a statement on bioengineering proclaims. "Reflecting on this diversity and this grace, United Methodists must address the threats to biodiversity and agricultural diversity posed by current work in genetic engineering."

The proposed statement laments the history of corporate overuse of land, homogenization of agriculture and brutal exploitation of non-human animal life. The document says use of the environment ruled by efficiency has supplanted awareness of the responsibilities of stewardship for God's creation.

"We have lost or obliterated strains of corn and apples, and bred chickens that do not ever get to walk, much less fly," the draft says. Multinational agribusiness has threatened the diversity of the human community by exporting such technology and exploitation to developing areas, it adds. "The voices of farmers in such developing contexts urge North American Christians to seek repentance and wisdom as we embark on the next wave of bio-engineering: genetic modification."

For its theological foundation and a starting point for direction, the task force draws heavily on work already done for earlier resolutions of the General Conference, including those on "U.S. Agriculture and Rural Communities in Crisis" and "New Developments in Genetic Science." Those and other position statements are in the denomination's Book of Resolutions.

In the course of drafting the statement on genetic engineering, the task force has generated a list of concerns for study and action.

These include the genetic contamination of non-genetically modified species and varieties. Related issues include: Who is liable for containing the modified species? Can the holder of rights to the modified species obtain payment from the contaminated crop's owner for "use"? What if the contamination means an organic farmer can no longer meet organic standards?

Other concerns include the effect of genetically modified traits in the overall food system and a resultant lack of diversity; the use of modified organisms to allow greater use of specific pesticides; and introduction of toxins into food crops as insecticides and the increasing insect resistance to those toxins. The group also deplores the lack of regulation and universal labeling of genetically modified food, and the absence of clear labeling for organically grown products that involve genetically modified organisms.

The task force says it laments "the dearth of knowledge of the long-term health effects of genetically modified organisms."

Its members object to the production and marketing of agricultural products that have been engineered to produce no seed or sterile seed so that farmers cannot plant seeds from the crops they have raised.

They also voice concern about interpretations of world trade rules that prevent local governments from determining their own guidelines regarding genetically modified organisms.

Committed to continuing work by conference call over the next few months, task force members expect to send a completed statement on bioengineering to the board for its fall meeting.

Meanwhile, the group's chairman, Bill Scott, will present the task force's paper on embryonic stem-cell research to the Board of Church and Society at its semi-annual meeting March 19-23. Scott is a professor at the University of Mississippi and a member of the board. The paper was revised in a conference call following a period of churchwide comment. In the paper, two task force members express opposition to the idea of doing research with existing embryos that otherwise would be discarded.

"To allow research on existing embryos, even given the potential for scientific progress, is to dilute this world of judgment," say task force members Amy Laura Hall, an ethicist at Duke Divinity School, and the Rev. Horacio Sison, chaplain at the University of the Philippines. They stated that it would be "more appropriate to discard existing embryos, with deep repentance" than to allow their use.

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