THE religious community in Jamaica, with the exception of Muslims, has come out against advanced reproductive technologies that allow parents to select embryos that will reach maturation.

HENRIQUES... what we are doing is interfering with the natural selection that would normally take place when two people come together for the purpose of procreation (Photo: Lionel Rookwood)

Progress in medicine has reached the stage where parents and their doctors now have the option to screen embryos and then to select the ones that are healthy to be born, as part of what has been dubbed the "designer baby" phenomenon.

It is an option to which members of the Christian and Jewish communities on the island have expressed aversion. Their argument is that it is "unnatural" and impersonal, taking away from the intimacy of procreation.
"Embryo engineering raises a lot of complex problems. Primarily, it negates the generation of new persons through the conjugal act (intercourse between husband and wife)," notes Reverend Father Kenneth Richards, rector at the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kingston.

"The process involves conception in-vitro, which facilitates the fertilisation of new persons through a technical and artificial process that substitutes the marital act. "There is also a moral problem involved in the process of sperm and ovum selection, and the preservation and destruction of embryos that would be necessary to facilitate the experimentation of embryo engineering," Richards added.

He said there is also the concern that in exercising the option to select embryos, man is assuming a role reserved for the Almighty.
"The whole interference of the reproductive process with respect to trying to select the end product is immoral. We are trying to assume the responsibility of the Creator, and so the church would disapprove of that kind of intervention," he said. "The church sees as immoral all kinds of scientific activity that have to do with in-vitro fertilisation and embryonic selection that is going beyond what is natural in the reproductive process."
But head of Islamic education in Jamaica, Sheikh Tijani Musa argues that people have the right to utilise the technology, certainly in the Muslim community.

"In Islam, the principle is that the female and male have to be married before they do what they want to do, and it has to be through the husband's sperm, not from anything else. If the technology wants to help them, Islam will not say anything to that," Musa said.
"Islam allows us to use our brain or knowledge, as long as it does not contradict the principle of Islam (which is that) the male and female are to firstly be under the married act. It has to be after the marriage, and the egg from the wife," he added.

According to Musa, God is the only one who creates the child, even where technology is used as a tool.
"If technology gives you knowledge, we need to know any benefit that comes from that. So the principle that we have is the marriage principle so that all the technology to check this or transfer that must be between the husband and wife, not any other," he told the Sunday Observer. "God is the only one who can make the child - rich or poor, long life, short life, good or bad. As long as they don't put any other sperm or anything to come to the mother, Islam will not have a problem with that."

RICHARDS... the whole interference in the reproductive process with respect to trying to select the end product is immoral

Ainsley Henriques, director and honorary secretary of the United Congregation of Israelites, was not in support of the "designer baby" phenomenon, which could also put parents and doctors in a position to modify embryos in the future.
"I would venture to say that we are certainly not going to support any of that. I would go as far as to support the idea of stem cell research regarding the preventative point of view, but in terms of modifying the human being to be, we certainly wouldn't be supporting that as a principle of faith," Henriques said.

He, like Richards, said people who used the technology were interfering in the 'natural order' of the reproductive process.
"Basically, what we are doing is interfering with the natural selection that would normally take place when two people come together for the purpose of procreation," Henriques said.
"We recognise marriage as being the most human relationship. We recognise that there are human frailties, and that it (marriage) is a contract between two people living together. If necessary then, the contract is broken, annulled. The natural selection would be part of that. You take what God gives you," he added.

Reverend Gary Harriott, a minister of the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, for his part, said the issue was not cut and dry. He said it was one that required serious deliberation of the pros and cons, before one could arrive at a position of support for or against the science involved.

"From an ethical, and moral perspective, we need to ask questions about the motive behind what could appear to be a good deed. I think we need to ask 'should there be limits to what people are allowed to do?' 'Could a wonderful scientific discovery carry negative implications for society and what I would call the harmony of existence?'" he said.

"I have not studied the phenomenon - designer babies - but oftentimes, these discoveries, they seem more to be about power and influence for some people, while rendering other people weak and powerless. The poor are often never able to afford them. And so you end up fuelling disparity between the rich and the poor," Harriott added.
Another issue that emerges as one considers the designer baby phenomenon, he said, is how doctors arrive at a decision as to which embryos are healthy and which are not.

"I am not 100 per cent comfortable with how you make the choice. What do you use to determine whether this is a good embryo or not? And what about those people who, if that scientific discovery was present at that time (in the past), some of us would not be around," he said. "They would have probably said that we were not fit so we have to be careful how we decide who is fit to come to fruition and who is not."

In addition, Harriott - like Richards and Henriques - said that while there was no question that science was of value to humanity, people needed to ensure they did not "assume God's role" in pursuit of perfection.

"I think there is a place for science, but I think we have to be careful that a wonderful discovery does not create disharmony or alienate some people because they can't afford it or because they don't 'look like'," said Harriott, who is also general secretary for the Jamaica Council of Churches.
According to the reverend, there has to be a place for imperfections in the world.

"There has to be a place for difference and tolerance. There is benefit to be derived from people who are different from you. We don't all have to have a particular profile," Harriott said.

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