SYDNEY, Australia, NOV. 9, 2001 (Zenit.org).- A broad range of religious leaders in Australia recently joined in publishing a letter (see Documents) protesting a decision by the government of New South Wales to introduce a bill allowing human cloning.
To get more perspective on the problem, ZENIT turned to Catholic Archbishop George Pell of Sydney.
Q: What was the genesis of this letter?
Archbishop Pell: The letter arose as part of the public response to a report produced by a committee of the federal parliament on the question of cloning. The committee was chaired by Kevin Andrews, who helped ensure the continuing illegality of euthanasia in Australia when the laws prohibiting it were under challenge in 1996.
The report concluded that there should be national legislation banning reproductive cloning and supported research into the use of adult and placental stem cells, together with funding and resources to encourage research in this direction.
On so-called therapeutic cloning, which is really shorthand for destructive experimentation on embryos, the committee was divided. Four members favored a complete ban on destructive embryo experimentation, together with research on existing stem-cell lines; and six members supported limited research on existing embryos and stem-cell lines.
All committee members supported a ban on the deliberate creation of embryos for experimentation and a three-year moratorium on the creation of embryos by somatic cell nuclear transfer techniques.
The Andrews committee report has opened a national debate on how Australia should deal with the question of embryo experimentation, and this letter is one of the first important contributions to that debate. It has been prepared by some of the country´s leading bioethicists and medical scientists, and as you can see, has a distinguished list of signatories.
Q: What does this show about the ecumenical climate in regards to bioethics? Is bioethics a new point of departure for ecumenical action in Australia — and elsewhere?
Archbishop Pell: There´s no doubt that 50 years ago ecumenical backing for a statement of this sort would have been much harder to gather. In Australia and in the English-speaking world generally, sectarianism was then a very divisive force.
One of the great blessings of the Second Vatican Council was the emphasis placed on cooperation with other Christians and members of other faiths. In its own way, the strong ecumenical spirit that characterizes relations between the Christian churches in Australia is one of the many blessings that the council has brought to the Church in this country.
As mutual understanding and respect between the different Christian communities grows, and as cooperation between Christians and members of other faiths — especially the Jewish community, but also the Islamic community — develops, we are finding not only that there is much about which we can agree, but that we are facing the many of the same strong problems.
Marriage, family and the basic ideas of decency and morality that Christians, Jews and Muslims uphold are all under enormous pressure in Australia and in the West more generally. There is some hostility, but the greater problem is simple indifference to religion; the feeling that faith is an optional extra and that life is simpler and easier without it.
In this context we are finding not only that sectarianism is a luxury we can no longer afford — to use an old expression, that unless we hang together we will hang separately — but also that there are certain important values which we all have an interest in advancing for the good of our own communities and for the wider common good.
The challenge of the new biotechnologies is obviously one area where this is true, and perhaps it does represent a new point of departure for ecumenical cooperation.
Marriage and family is another area where the possibilities of ecumenical action are yet to be properly developed. And of course, there has been a long history of ecumenical cooperation in the area of social justice.
Q: Is there hope for Australia, and the West, to avoid going further down the slippery slope of eugenics?
Archbishop Pell: I´m always hopeful, although the forces arrayed against us are formidable.
The situation in Australia is perhaps a bit better than elsewhere, owing to Kevin Andrews´ spectacular victory over the pro-euthanasia forces in 1996. This was a completely unexpected win for us. Certainly that is how our opponents regard it, and many on our own side as well.
It showed very powerfully that eugenics is not inevitable; that we can get off the slippery slope if we are prepared to work hard and intelligently. I am sure that if it hadn´t been for the victory on the euthanasia issue, the sort of united front that you see on the cloning issue would have been much harder to achieve.
We won an important battle on euthanasia here, but it was only a battle. The war continues in many different theatres both here and overseas. The news from these theaters is often depressing; some of the experiments done on embryos, especially those directed to producing animal-man hybrids, are truly horrifying; and the number of abortions, although stabilizing or dipping slightly in some places, remains a crime crying to heaven for justice.
The task still lies before us, and we are really talking about hard work over many years — possibly over generations. But I think we have more reason to be confident about our chances and about the prospects of building a culture of life than was the case even 10 years ago, let alone in the 1970s.
John Paul II has played a crucial part in this, especially in the way he has inspired and energized a whole generation of young Catholics. So yes, there is hope. It is one of the greatest gifts that this great pope has given us in the course of his long pontificate.
