Word: clergymen
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...Christ. The political spectrum ranged from right-whig TV Evangelist Jerry Falwell to Bishop James Armstrong, the liberal Methodist who heads the National Council of Churches. Twenty-three Roman Catholic bishops added their names, as did Jewish Leaders Albert Vorspan and Rabbi Wolfe Kelman. The prestige of the clergymen, as well as the wide variety of their views on religious and social issues, gave special impact to their plea to Congress: ban genetic experiments by scientists that might change human characteristics passed along from one generation to its successor...
Although genetic engineering is still in its early stage of development, the clergymen were worried about its implications for the future of mankind. Explained J. Robert Nelson, a professor of theology at Boston University and a signer of the document: "It may be possible to modify human life so much as to produce some theologically unacceptable notion of what human life is. We are in danger of treating human beings as animal stock rather than respecting their dignity...
Dissatisfaction with this response led the clergymen last week to press Congress to stop human engineering. Democratic Congressman Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee has introduced a bill, thought likely to win House approval, that would create a presidential commission to monitor, but not regulate, developments in the field. Gore last week called the clergymen's request for a moratorium on research "a hasty judgment...
...healthy traits would be passed on indefinitely to succeeding generations. However ideal that goal might seem, signers of the petition to Congress fear that the engineering changes could later cause unforeseen problems. One example: eradication of sickle-cell anemia genes might make an individual more susceptible to malaria. Other clergymen are deeply concerned that scientists, despite their disclaimers, will eventually seek to make more changes - in short, to usurp the creative function of God by building a kind of superman...
...only are theologians perplexed by the issue, but scientists themselves are divided. Last week the clergymen opposing human engineering were joined by seven scientists, including Nobel Laureates Polycarp Kusch and George Wald. A bio chemist, Wald echoes the fears of many clergymen about altering human genes when he asks, "Who is going to set those specifications...