LISTSERV mailing list manager LISTSERV 16.0

Help for ELCANEWS Archives


ELCANEWS Archives

ELCANEWS Archives


ELCANEWS@LISTSERV.ELCA.ORG


View:

Message:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Topic:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

By Author:

[

First

|

Previous

|

Next

|

Last

]

Font:

Monospaced Font

LISTSERV Archives

LISTSERV Archives

ELCANEWS Home

ELCANEWS Home

ELCANEWS  March 1999

ELCANEWS March 1999

Subject:

Lutherans Author Book on Genetic Testing and Screening

From:

NEWS <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

[log in to unmask]

Date:

Tue, 23 Mar 1999 16:41:18 -0600

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (181 lines)

Title: Lutherans Author Book on Genetic Testing and Screening
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 23, 1999

LUTHERANS AUTHOR BOOK ON GENETIC TESTING AND SCREENING
98-11-63-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA) has a "reliable and accessible guide into Christian reflection on
genetic testing and screening," wrote the Rev. Charles S. Miller,
executive director of the ELCA Division for Church in Society, in the
preface to a new book, "Genetic Testing and Screening: Critical
Engagement at the Intersection of Faith and Science."
     Genetic testing and screening are technological procedures that
analyze samples of human body fluid or tissue for the presence or
absence of specific genetic material. Currently the most common medical
applications involve screens or tests that detect the heritable basis of
disease, defect or abnormalities during pregnancy or in infants.
Criminal DNA testing is an example of a non-medical use.
     "Our society needs a church and a people who greet the situation
with informed thinking and with discernment for compassionate and just
action. This book will have fulfilled its mandate if it equips the
reader to join in such a critical engagement," wrote the Rev. Roger A.
Willer in the book's introduction.
     Willer, while engaged in doctoral studies at the University of
Chicago, acted as director and editor of this writing project on human
genetic testing and screening for the ELCA Division for Church in
Society.
     "Genetic knowledge can lead to preventative medical therapy, allow
informed choice, set free the wrongly accused, and spin off whole new
industries that respond to the ailments and misfortunes of life," wrote
Willer. "While we may celebrate these new powers, their application
also brings vexing personal crises and social dilemmas."
     Different ELCA members wrote each of the book's nine chapters.
The first three chapters are organized into a section called
"Understanding Genetic Testing and Screening."
     Dr. Kevin Powell, a pediatrician for Carle Clinic and an assistant
professor at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Urbana,
Ill., wrote the book's initial chapter, "A Basic Guide: Facts and
Issues." Powell is a physician with an earned doctorate in medical
engineering.
     "Scientists are motivated by compassion to help others who are
suffering from genetic diseases. These efforts increase social
justice," wrote Powell. "The trade-off is that genetic technology also
increases power and places that power in fewer hands, which may decrease
social justice.
     "Science continues to increase knowledge. Religion must increase
wisdom of how to use this knowledge. These two functions cannot operate
independently but must interact," wrote Powell.
     Kirstin Finn Schwandt, a community-based genetic counselor in
Bloomington, Ind., wrote "Personal Stories: Cases from Genetic
Counseling." A former genetic research lab assistant, she is trained in
medical genetics with an emphasis on counseling and ethical issues.
     "While genetic counselors are key members of the medical care
team, they are not usually trained to focus on the faith-related needs
of patients," Schwandt wrote. "Spiritual issues often fall by the
wayside because a counseling session is devoted to the exchange of
information. Many patients are left with unanswered questions like 'Why
do bad things always happen to me?'"
     "Science and technology have brought us into an era which requires
profound responsibility. For Christians, this is not an affliction but
a gift from God," wrote Schwandt. "If the church chooses to be present
to people struggling with genetic choices, it must become genetically
literate in order to understand and respond."
     John Varian, senior vice president for finance and administration,
Elan Pharmaceuticals, wrote "Genetics in the Marketplace: A Biotech
Perspective." Elan is a pharmaceutical company based near San
Francisco.
     "Genetic test development will occur and at an increasingly rapid
pace. I hope that my comments here will aid the kind of conversation
that we need to have in the church as these developments increasingly
influence our lives. It is crucial that those of us in the church
become better educated so that we can enter into and attempt to affect
the ongoing debate," wrote Varian.
     "While the genes God has given us are a gift, he transcends our
genetic make-up. We must affirm that we are more than just the sum of
our genes," Varian wrote. "We must affirm that there is more to life.
We must affirm the importance of God's plan for each of our lives even
though we can never fully fathom it."
     The book's middle section, "Engaging Worldviews and Proposing
Alternatives," includes four chapters by ethicists and theologians.
     The Rev. Philip Hefner wrote "The Genetic 'Fix': Challenge to
Christian Faith and Community." He is a professor of systematic
theology at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and director of
the Chicago Center on Religion and Science.
     The "prevailing worldview" is that all of nature is subject to a
human "freedom to define and shape it," Hefner wrote. When it comes to
genetic testing and screening this viewpoint tends to blur "the
distinction between healing and 'fixing,'" and it "offers very limited
personal and spiritual support."
     As an alternative, Hefner called people "God's created co-creators." Using Christian perspectives on humans as both creatures of
nature and shapers of nature, he illustrated that being created in "the
image of God brings with it possibilities and responsibilities."
     "I propose the image of 'Christian friendship' as a challenge to
our congregations as supportive communities," wrote Hefner. "Such a
community will not be found in many places in our American society. It
is the church's calling to be in fact this community."
     Elizabeth Bettenhausen explored issues of the human body and the
church as "the body of Christ" in "Genes in Society: Whose Body?" The
social ethicist, theologian and author teaches courses at Hartford
Seminary, Hartford, Conn., and the University of Massachusetts at
Boston.
     "Remembering Luther's insistence that a person is best understood
as life in interacting relationships can help us in the church,"
Bettenhausen wrote. "The need within the church is not for increased
specialization in conversations on genetic testing and screening.
Rather, the church can be precisely a corporate communion in which
attention is always given to the specifics of a particular science or
profession but explicitly in the larger context of human society."
     "In terms of genetic testing and screening, how we analyze
interests, resources, benefits, and burdens will be affected from the
beginning by a strong bias in favor of 'the least of these,' meaning
persons with the fewest benefits and most burdens in society," wrote
Bettenhausen. "Conversation in society is an opportunity for the church
to engage many more cultures and perspectives than exist within a
particular denomination or congregation."
     The Rev. Theodore F. Peters, a professor of systematic theology at
Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, Calif., said he wished
he could have predicted a more optimistic future in "Love and Dignity:
Against Children Becoming Commodities;" instead he forecast "free market
eugenics."
     "Eugenics was a movement to use family planning to improve the
health and intelligence and productivity of the human race," wrote
Peters, a research scholar at the Center for Theology and the Natural
Sciences, Berkeley, Calif.
     "My theological and ethical concern is that free market eugenics
will set us up economically and culturally to view future children as
commodities, as merchandise. Genetic discrimination in insurance and
employment will bring economic pressures upon families to eliminate
future children with undesirable -- read expensive -- genes," Peters
wrote.
     Dr. Hans O. Tiefel, a professor of religion and ethics and chair
of the Religion Department at the College of William and Mary,
Williamsburg, Va., wrote "Individualism vs. Faith: Genetic Ethics in
Contrasting Perspectives." He reflected on "genetic ethics from two
perspectives: that of contemporary culture and that of biblical-liturgical faith."
     "American individualism as our cultural mainstream focuses on the
intrinsic worth of persons in terms of their rational capacities,"
Tiefel wrote. "Biblical and liturgical traditions ascribe human dignity
to a transcendent source."
     "While both a secular individualism and Christian faith welcome
knowing what genetic testing reveals, faith confronts such knowing in
the presence of God and of the community, places these dilemmas into the
orbit of religious commitment, and bears its burdens as shared
responsibilities," wrote Tiefel.
     "Confronting Professional Challenges" is the book's final section.
     Dr. Robert Roger Lebel wrote "A Geneticist's Synthesis: Evolution,
Faith and Decision Making." He is a community-based clinical geneticist
with Genetics Services, Elmhurst, Ill. "God is at work in the evolution
of the universe, driving and energizing it toward its final goal of
unification in Christ," he wrote.
     "Each person confronted with a decision about genetic matters
ought to approach it prayerfully to discern how the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit is leading him or her toward the most creative and generous
response to the challenge," wrote Lebel.
     "We Christians believe that we shall see Him in the flesh, that we
will be resurrected, joining Him forever. Yet we have no clear notion
of how this will look," Lebel wrote. "We believe it will take place; we
believe the promise of Christ."
     The Rev. Lawrence E. Holst chaired the department of pastoral care
at Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge, Ill., for 35 years before he
retired and moved to Seabrook Island, S.C. He wrote the book's final
chapter, "A Pastoral Perspective: Companionship Beyond Innocence."
     "Our current genetic dilemma: increased knowledge expands moral
choices and thereby imposes moral burdens upon the decision maker,"
Holst wrote. "Such rapid developments are parting 'the veil of
innocence' by empowering us to understand more fully, and even to alter,
what nature has given us."
     "This chapter is an attempt to provide a pastoral perspective for
those seeking to provide care to loved ones and friends who will undergo
genetic testing and will thereby experience 'the parting of this veil,'"
wrote Holst.
     The book, "Genetic Testing and Screening," concludes with a five-page glossary of terms and their definitions. It is published by Kirk
House Publishers, Minneapolis. The ELCA Division for Church in Society
maintains a Web page about the book
(http://www.elca.org/DCS/genetic.htm).

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html

Top of Message | Previous Page | Permalink

Advanced Options


Options

Log In

Log In

Get Password

Get Password


Search Archives

Search Archives


Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Subscribe or Unsubscribe


Archives

October 2024
September 2024
August 2024
July 2024
June 2024
May 2024
April 2024
March 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
November 2018
October 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
January 2003
December 2002
November 2002
October 2002
September 2002
August 2002
July 2002
June 2002
May 2002
April 2002
March 2002
February 2002
January 2002
December 2001
November 2001
October 2001
September 2001
August 2001
July 2001
June 2001
May 2001
April 2001
March 2001
February 2001
January 2001
December 2000
November 2000
October 2000
September 2000
August 2000
July 2000
June 2000
May 2000
April 2000
March 2000
February 2000
January 2000
December 1999
November 1999
October 1999
September 1999
August 1999
July 1999
June 1999
May 1999
April 1999
March 1999
February 1999
January 1999
December 1998
November 1998
October 1998
September 1998
August 1998
July 1998
June 1998
May 1998
April 1998
March 1998
February 1998
January 1998
December 1997
November 1997
October 1997
September 1997
August 1997
July 1997
June 1997
May 1997
April 1997
March 1997
February 1997
January 1997
December 1996
November 1996
October 1996
September 1996
August 1996
July 1996
June 1996
May 1996
April 1996
March 1996
February 1996
January 1996

ATOM RSS1 RSS2



LISTSERV.ELCA.ORG

CataList Email List Search Powered by the LISTSERV Email List Manager