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The impact of biotechnology on the church

Biotechnology is an emerging field that has long-term ramifications for our world over the next century. It could very well surpass the Information Technology of our last decade in both scope, impact, and monetary value.

Biotech is already having an impact on our world. As we noted in our last issue, ‘supermice’ have been engineered which grow twice as fast, to twice the size, as their peers, and moreover pass those genes on to their offspring. We have thus been able to create a new ‘breed’ of mice—and we can do the same thing for other species as well.

Further, we have the capacity to create ‘hybrids.’ We can take the traits of one species and put it into another. This extends to taking traits from plants and putting them in insects or animals, and vice-versa. For example, scientists have taken the cold-water survival trait of northern fish and put it into tomatoes to create a frost-resistant tomato. In another example, scientists have taken the firefly gene and insert it into tobacco plants to make the leaves glow. The same process can be used to engineer animals which can secret chemicals in their milk (for example, a herd of 12 goats each able to produce BR-96, a cancer treatment, could completely replace a $10 million facility).

This technique can be dangerous. It is possible, for example, to genetically engineer plants to defend themselves against predators; to grow cotton, for example, that can kill insects.

Another aspect of biotechnology is the ability to lab grow life. A commercial application is the ability to grow vanilla in the lab. This product is worth hundreds of millions annually (vanilla, for example, is the most common ice cream flavor). A more controversial application is the lab growth of test tube babies.

Biotechnology will have a wide-ranging impact. The USA alone is home to over 1,300 biotech companies, and more are springing up outside of the USA to avoid its regulatory environment. In our last issue we presented the following scenarios possible by 2050:

Aging under control by 2050, eliminated by 2080 (Hello, Methuselah) through use of genetic engineering.

Tens of thousands of transgenic bacteria, viruses, plants and animals are released into the ecosystem for commercial tasks ranging from bioremediation to alternative fuels; some wreak havoc in the biosphere, spreading destabilizing and deadly genetic pollution.

Genetically customized and mass-produced animal clones are used as chemical factories to secrete via their blood and milk large volumes of inexpensive chemicals and drugs for human use.

Human/animal genetic hybrids are used for experimental subjects in medical research and as donors for organ transplants.

Some parents choose to have their children conceived in test-tubes and gestated in artificial wombs.

Genetic changes in human fetuses correct deadly diseases and disorders, and enhance mood, behavior, intelligence and physical traits.

Millions of people can obtain a detailed genetic readout of themselves; the same genetic information is used by schools, employers, insurance companies and governments.

There is a new form of discrimination based on one’s genetic profile; an informal biological caste system develops.

These advances will also lead to wide-ranging effects on the church. It is possible that biotech issues will become as heavily and angrily debated as abortion and birth-control. Here are some potential scenarios:

· A recent short-story in Asimov’s Science Fiction suggests the ominous possibility of attacking religious adherents with biotech weapons. (This particular scenario involves Muslims).

· Denominations will likely split, and new denominations form, over the issue of the usage of biotechnology, just as denominations today have split and formed over abortion.

· If a genetic trait is responsible for a predisposition to homosexuality, a radical might attempt the deployment of a biotech weapon to kill people with this genetic trait.

· Many churches and conservative Christians will likely become involved in political battles over privacy and genetic discrimination; this could consume an enormous amount of time, energy and donor dollars.

· A whole new basis for genetic discrimination could spring up if clear genetic proof is found for some diseases being centered in some racial genetic mixes. What role will the church play in countering or spreading this discrimination, when it has played such a central role in spreading discrimination in the past?

· Churches could see large losses or gains in their membership if they make wholesale denouncements of biotechnology regularly used by their members—for example, witness the large numbers of Roman Catholics who disregard their tradition’s teachings on birth control.

· The very basic questions of life will be discussed and debated as biotech becomes more and more prevalent. Pastors will begin preaching sermons about life, and a new urgency will be lent to the battle over the authorship of life. For example, could a whole new ‘subclass’ be created, perhaps a hybrid of humans and apes that are intelligent enough to do basic tasks but not intelligent enough to be considered full members of human society? And if such a race is successfully created, do they have a soul? (There is already a genteel debate over whether dogs and cats have souls, but this could be given a new and deadly seriousness if such a subclass were created).

· The development of biotech will also make possible the cure for various diseases—and the development of weapons that could attack people that have those diseases. Will some radicals attack those with AIDS as they have attacked abortion clinics? Will the church insist that cures for diseases be spread worldwide and made freely or at least cheaply available, or will it condemn untold millions to ongoing death by agreeing to market methods for distributing medicines?

· How will the church deal with longevity treatments and aging? Already it’s beginning to feel the touch of this issue with the aging of the boomers—what if we expand our lifespan to 120 or more?

It is clear that we are just on the edge of another enormous shift in our world. The church had little to say about the Information Revolution (first blasting the television but then accepting computers). Biotech, however, is fundamentally different because it deals with life itself. The questions raised by our experiments must be discussed by Christians, even perhaps in ecumenical discussions with other religious faiths.

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© 1999 Momentum Magazine.
Related: The Mission Manual · Justin Long's Annotated Links and Notes