BEYOND HUMAN?
Science and the changing face of humanity
By John Bryant
Lion. 253 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978 0 745 953 960
In 1984 John Stott wrote his classic book Issues facing Christians today. Those issues, pluralism, environmental, north-south divide, feminism, abortion, homosexuality, etc. are still with us. But relatively unforeseen then were the incredible advances in biomedical sciences which were unthinkable in a former generation.
We are said to be living in ‘the age of genetics’ and that knowing about our genetic makeup will tell us ‘who we are’. The announcement of the first draft of a human genome sequence in 2000 was heralded by Bill Clinton suggesting that because of the new genetic knowledge people could look forward to living to an age of 100 years or more! Others claimed that we were now in the era of genet-ically-based personalised medicine.
Huge questions
Hyperbole aside what has actually emerged from the massive expanse of knowledge of human genetics? This book outlines the key areas which have witnessed such rapid progress during the past three decades: genetic testing and diagnosis, pre-natal and pre-implantation testing, IVF, gene therapy, gene repair or replacement with involvement of embryonic or adult stem cells, human
cloning, etc. Inevitably there is scientific/technical detail, but lack of a biomedical background should not preclude anyone seeking to understand these new techniques and treatments. Each of the issues raises huge questions. Just because we can doesn’t mean that we should. Where are the limits?
Dr. Bryant has a wealth of experience as Professor Emeritus of Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Exeter. The early sections of the book place modern advances in the context of social history (I found this very helpful) before examining ethics and the application of ethics in medicine. Dr. Bryant states that he is an ‘active Christian’ and that he ‘leans strongly towards Christian-based virtue ethics’, but there are parts of the book which will leave some wondering what position the author actually holds. So, for example, ‘the development of religion seems to have been a general feature of human evolution’ or ‘I do not want here to comment on the morality or otherwise of abortion’. However he does urge the reader to engage with each of the issues (and the inevitable questions) and therefore I commend the book to anyone who is concerned to understand the revolution in biomedicine and is prepared to think through the ethical and moral implications in the light of what God has revealed in Scripture.
