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The General Conference of The United Methodist Church, is
the only church body that speaks for the entire 8.4 million member United
Methodist Church. This past May, the
General Conference called “for a ban on
all human cloning, including the cloning of human embryos. This would include all projects, privately
or governmentally funded, that are
intended to advance human cloning.”
(The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church, 2000, p. 254)
The General Conference based its position on the work of the
United Methodist Genetic Science Task Force which began its work in 1989, some
8 years before a Scottish laboratory succeeded in cloning “Dolly”.
Since the cloning of Dolly, this issue of cloning has
sparked enormous and sustained concern in the general public, including the
church. Many other denominations other
than the United Methodist Church have also issued statements opposing human cloning. The United Methodist Church opposition to cloning comes from our
understanding of a theology of God’s creation and how humans are to be stewards
of God’s creation. The new biological
technologies, including cloning, force us to examine as never before, the
meaning of life, our understanding of ourselves as humans, and our proper role
in God’s creation. The General
Conference “caution(s) that the prevalent
principle in research that what can be done should be done is insufficient
rationale …and should not be the prevalent principle guiding the development of
new technologies…technologies need moral and ethical guidance.” (Book of
Resolutions, p. 248)
As United Methodists, our reflections on these issues
emerge from our faith. We remember that
creation has its origin, value, and destiny in God, that humans are stewards of
creation, and that technology has brought both great benefit and harm to
creation. As people of faith, we believe that our identity as humans is more
than our genetic inheritance, our social environment, or the sum of the two. We
are created by God and have been redeemed by Jesus Christ. In light of these
theological claims and other questions, fears and expectations, we recognize
that our present human knowledge on this issue is incomplete and finite. We do
not know all of the consequences of cloning…It is important that the limits of
human knowledge be considered as policy is made. (Book of Resolutions, p.254)
Dr. Rebekah Miles, associate professor of ethics, at Perkins
School of Theology, Southern Methodist
University and a member of the United Methodist Task Force on Genetic Science
summarized the questions asked by our taskforce.
Will human cloning compromise our
God-given uniqueness or distinctiveness?
How might human cloning be misused
by sinful humans to further their selfish ends and objectify other people?
Is a desire to replicate one’s
genetic inheritance in a human clone an attempt to deny our inevitable finitude
as human beings?
Will human cloning further social
injustice…?
When does human alteration of
creation go so far as to become a violation of God’s creation?
What is the difference between our
human capacities for creation and God’s?
Our Genetic Science Task Force concluded that cloning would
compromise human distinctiveness, that it would be used as a way to further
social injustice, and was a violation of their understanding of God’s Creation
and as such should be banned.
The General Conference statement on human cloning notes a
number of ways that human cloning would have social and theological ramifications: (the) use and abuse of people,
exploitation of women, (the) tearing of the fabric of the family, the
compromising of human distinctiveness, the lessening of genetic diversity, the
direction of research and development (on cloning would likely be)…controlled
by corporate profit …(Book of
Resolutions, p. 254) The General
Conference further noted that Given the
profound theological and moral implications, the imperfection of human
knowledge that there be a moratorium on cloning-related research.
Cloning proponents will argue that cloning will soon be come
a normal way of reproducing humans and that initial opposition will fade away
when safety concerns are addressed. The
cloning of human humans should never be allowed to become “normal”. The US Congress has the opportunity to join
with many other countries where the United Methodist Church has members and ban
human cloning. The rest of the world is
looking to the United States for leadership on this issue. As the ethicist,
Leon Kass notes, This is not business as
usual to be fretted about for a while but to finally be given our approval. We
must rise to the occasion and make our judgements as if the future of our
humanity hangs in the balance. For so it does. (Leon Kass, “The Wisdom of Repugnance: Why We
Should Ban the Cloning of Humans.”)
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