The Church-Public Council on Biomedical Ethics under the Russian Orthodox Church at its meeting the day before yesterday called on the competent structures of state power to introduce a moratorium on human genetic modification, according to the Foma magazine.
The meeting of the Council was held in Petrozavodsk under the chairmanship of the local ruling bishop, Metropolitan Constantine. The participants of the working meeting, noting that the intention of people to defeat hereditary diseases is quite natural, pointed out that interference with the genome of the human embryo can have unpredictable consequences - and, moreover, cause serious and long-term bioethical problems. Council members called for a rigorous, comprehensive examination and broad public debate regarding interference with the human genome - as well as dialogue on this issue between the humanitarian and scientific communities. One of the important points of such a discussion should be the question of the legal status of the human embryo. Until full agreement on these issues is reached, the participants in the Council meeting said, a moratorium should be introduced on editing the human genome. As 'Thomas' reminds, the majority of successive Christian churches, including the Russian Orthodox Church, are very wary of innovative technologies in the field of genetics. In the 'Foundations of the Social Concept' of the Russian Church in this regard, it is directly stated that 'the purpose of genetic intervention should not be an artificial' improvement 'of the human race and intrusion into God's plan for man.'
The meeting of the Council was held in Petrozavodsk under the chairmanship of the local ruling bishop, Metropolitan Constantine. The participants of the working meeting, noting that the intention of people to defeat hereditary diseases is quite natural, pointed out that interference with the genome of the human embryo can have unpredictable consequences - and, moreover, cause serious and long-term bioethical problems. Council members called for a rigorous, comprehensive examination and broad public debate regarding interference with the human genome - as well as dialogue on this issue between the humanitarian and scientific communities. One of the important points of such a discussion should be the question of the legal status of the human embryo. Until full agreement on these issues is reached, the participants in the Council meeting said, a moratorium should be introduced on editing the human genome. As 'Thomas' reminds, the majority of successive Christian churches, including the Russian Orthodox Church, are very wary of innovative technologies in the field of genetics. In the 'Foundations of the Social Concept' of the Russian Church in this regard, it is directly stated that 'the purpose of genetic intervention should not be an artificial' improvement 'of the human race and intrusion into God's plan for man.'
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