Genetics, Conversation and Conversion: A Discourse at the Interface of Molecular Biology and Christian Ethics (Brian Brock)
This chapter reports on an experimental conversation between a practicing molecular biologist and a Christian ethicist. It arose in the form of joint lectures in which the presentation of the technical state of the art in genetic science proceeded hand in hand with a theological analysis of the moral implications of its scientific models, discourses, and hermeneutic claims. The impulse to open such dialogue was a sense from both sides that there is a serious deficit of detailed interaction between the two disciplines, creating a critical lack of relevant ethical discussion of issues related to human genetics. As a result, popular and academic discussions of ethical
issues in human genetics have drifted apart to the point of absurdity. Yet rather than responding to this estrangement by embarking on the popular ‘scientific education’ approach, we felt that a concerted
attempt was needed not simply to express the science to the public, but to try to understand the moral implications of the science by struggling to articulate theologically expressed questions and criticisms in the course of discussion about the science.
Brian Brock, Walter Doerfler & Hans Ulrich