Infinite Critique

Does any one else find this really scary?

According to BBC News 24,

“The Most Reverend Peter Smith has advised MPs to vote against a bill which allows the creation of hybrid human-animal embryos for research.

He joins other leading Catholics and Catholic MPs demanding to be allowed to vote in line with their conscience.

But Health Minister Ben Bradshaw said it was right to push through the law.

Mr Bradshaw told the BBC the legislation would be “to the potential benefit of many people in this country”.”

As soon as I read this I felt kind of uneasy.

Do I want human and animal DNA mixed to create something new, something other?

Do we have the right to take a part of ourselves and add something else to that mix, so creating a thing not quite human, and therefore something that has no rights, that belongs to research, that is not a he or a she but an it?

Ok, it can be argued that the idea is not to create another being, but to grow a cluster of cells that can be used to benefit our whole race, but is this really what the outcome will be?

I remember the horror this idea instilled in me when in 1988, aged 13, I watched the BBC series First Born, starring Charles Dance “as genetic researcher Edward Forester, whose work leads him to create a man-gorilla hybrid, using his own sperm and cells taken from a female gorilla. He then raises the baby as his own son, only to find that there are horrifying consequences for playing God.”

Handled with intelligence and pathos (as far as I can remember, hey, I was 13), this story left me very sad and quite disturbed by the idea that this kind of thing could be possible one day.

When in 1991, aged 16, I watched Chimera, an ITV adaptation of a Stephen Gallagher Book where an escaped human/ape hybrid stalks and attacks the community surrounding the research institute from which he escaped, I was equally affected.

I never forgot these two programmes. I remember the names, the faces, certain scenes, but mainly I remember how they made me feel.

Fear, horror and guilt are the words that come to mind. The fear and the horror are obvious, I mean, they were sad stories, and kind of gory, but the guilt was something different. I felt guilty that it was possible a human being, like myself could do this to another human, be it in embryo form, or not, and also for the resultant creatures and the way they were used and abused in the name of research.

In January this year, a statement was issued from the four main research Institutes hoping to benefit from this legislature.

“This research has massive potential to provide treatments for serious debilitating disorders ranging from developmental abnormalities in young children, to stroke, cancer, HIV/Aids, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease, as well as better and safer treatment for infertile couples.”

Hmm, yes, all very emotive, and if I’m honest, if it was my kid on the line, or my partner or me, maybe I’d be up for anything. I really do get that. I get why a person who is desperate, hopeless and afraid would grasp at any and every possibility to protect and secure the well-being of a loved one.

But then I read this;

“The UK’s strengths in this field present valuable opportunities to influence the international agenda, drive the translation of basic research towards clinical benefits and attract skilled scientists and international investment in stem cell research to the UK.”

And I read it as money, power, politics and ‘let’s do it because we can.’

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for progress. If men and women had not had vision, imagination and drive through the years that have passed, then we would live in a very different world today, but where does it stop?

In the news today, it seems this moral dilemma is being depicted as just a Catholic one, but I think it is a human one, and maybe one we should all think about a lot more deeply than perhaps we have.

If we are to allow science to progress down this uncertain road, we need to make our views heard, so that each time a journey begins there is a specific destination in mind. For once science should not just be allowed to explore uncharted territories. In my opinion, we should take an avid interest in what might end up on this map.

NB. Sorry if this post seems unscientific, misinformed or simplistic. I’m just a person reacting to the immediate information I have to hand. But my views are still important right?