c. 1998 Religion News Service

Bioethicist: world not equipped to deal with pace of genetic discoveries

(RNS) Dr. Donald Bruce, the Church of Scotland’s adviser on the ethical issues of technology, says the world is not equipped to cope with the speed of genetic engineering discoveries.

Because of that, Bruce said, the world needs to go slow in approving cloning and to tighten regulations against any human cloning.”There is now a worldwide recognition, from governments, professional medical bodies and bioethics committees, that to clone human beings would be both unethical and unsafe,”said Bruce, who chaired a Church of Scotland working group on genetic engineering that included Ian Wilmut, the scientist who led cloning research at the Roslin Institute that produced Dolly the sheep.”There is a basis for a worldwide ban,”he added in an interview with Ecumenical News International, the Geneva-based religious news agency.

Bruce made his remarks following reports an international team headed by Ryuzo Yanagimachi of the University of Hawaii had produced 22 cloned mice from adult mice cells.

Bruce said his support for a ban on human cloning was not”without reservations.”There could certainly be many positive developments, but the ethical dilemmas remain. The key issue is what are we going to use this research for.” The cloning of mice, he said, opens up a lot more possibilities for cloning applications in animals and potentially in humans. Because mice are easier to work with than farm animals,”many more laboratories will now be in a position to jump on the cloning bandwagon,”he said.”Care will be needed not to reduce mice to mere items in a research catalogue, and to remember they, like us, are God’s creatures,”he said.

House would deny federal housing funds to San Francisco over gays

(RNS) The House of Representatives on Wednesday (July 29) narrowly approved a measure that would deny federal housing funds to San Francisco because of the city’s domestic partners ordinance extending benefits to the partners of gay employees.

San Francisco requires firms and organizations it does business with to provide the same benefits to unmarried, live-in couples that it provides to married couples.

The measure, sponsored by Rep. Frank Riggs, R-Calif., passed 214-212. Twenty-five Democrats joined 189 Republicans to support Riggs’ amendment, while 178 Democrats, 33 Republicans and 1 independent opposed it.

It would deny the city some $265 million in federal housing money.

Riggs said the San Francisco ordinance forces the private sector to adhere to a morally objectionable policy and wrongly elevates unmarried homosexuals to the same status as married heterosexuals.

But opponents of the House measure said the vote reflects the”homophobia”of House Republicans. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., called the measure”mean-spirited”and”bigoted”and Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., who represents San Francisco called it”a poorly disguised assault on a persecuted minority.” The vote sets the stage for a vote, probably next week, on a similar measure that would deny federal money for the implementation issues by President Clinton barring discrimination against federal employees based on sexual orientation.

Update: First suspect in Guatemalan bishop’s slaying freed

(RNS) A Guatemalan judge Wednesday (July 29) dismissed charges against a suspect who has been jailed since April on suspicion of killing Roman Catholic Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi.

At the same time, the judge also ordered a medical examination of the Rev. Mario Orantes, the priest and co-worker of the slain bishop government investigators now suspect of being implicated in the killing.

Carlos Enrique Vielman, 24, a self-described drunkard, was arrested just days after the murder of Gerardi, a staunch human rights campaigner. But Judge Isaias Figueroa ordered him freed”for lack of merit.” The Associated Press, meanwhile, reported that dog bites allegedly found on the bishop’s body may have been a factor in prosecutors’ decision to arrest Orantes, who owns a dog.

Orantes, who discovered the body and who lived with Gerardi at the rectory where the bishop was slain, has denied the accusations against him.

Orantes’ lawyer said there was insufficient evidence to say Gerardi was attacked by a dog and noted the official forensics report made no mention of an animal attack.

The Archdiocese of Guatemala City has said that while the church does not oppose the investigation, it”believes in the innocence of Father Mario Orantes Najera.”We demand, out of respect for Monsignor Gerardi … the church and the people of Guatemala, that no more distractions be elaborated to hide the real killers.”

Jewish charity chief to step down

(RNS) The chief executive of the Council of Jewish Federations _ the coordinating agency for some 180 local federations across North America _ has announced his resignation.

Martin Kraar’s decision to leave CJF after 10 years as its top staff person came as the organization was finalizing a merger with the United Jewish Appeal and the United Israel Appeal to create one super-agency for Jewish communal charity in the United States and Canada.

The as-yet unnamed super-agency will be responsible for distributing to Jewish charities in North America, Israel and elsewhere about $1.5 billion in annual donations. The new entity will also distribute domestically about $2 billion in U.S. government monies, including Medicare funds and anti-poverty grants.

Kraar, who was seen as a leading candidate to head the new agency, will become executive director of the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science. The institute is a world-renowned center for scientific inquiry in Rehovot, Israel.

In announcing his move, Kraar set no date for leaving CJF, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency news service reported Thursday (July 30). Kraar said he would not leave his current post until”a logical point”in the merger process.

Ecumenical think tank names new interim director

(RNS) The Rev. Barbara Green, a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister and longtime policy advocate in the denomination’s Washington office, has been named to a two-year term as interim director of the churches’ Center for Theology and Public Policy.

The ecumenical research center works on justice, peace and ecology issues and is based at Wesley Theological Seminary, a United Methodist school, in Washington, D.C.

Green, a graduate of Yale Divinity School, served for 15 years in the Presbyterian office, working primarily on peace and international issues. Before that she worked for the National Council of Churches as its representative to the federation of Protestant churches in East Germany.”I am delighted with the appointment of Barbara Green, who has shown great capability and compassion for the issues of the day,”said Roman Catholic Bishop Walter Sullivan of Richmond, Va., president of the center’s board of directors.

Quote of the day: The Rev. Ben Weir

(RNS)”In one sense, a great deal has happened in the years between (my release and now). … We’ve done a lot. But on the other hand, as I returned and stood under the banyan tree where I was released, it all seemed very near in some ways. … It really was a homecoming, in a very humbling and delightful way.” _ The Rev. Ben Weir, reflecting on his first visit in 13 years to Lebanon, where he was held hostage for 475 days following his 1984 abduction by Islamic militants. Weir had served in Lebanon for 30 years before his kidnapping.

DEA END RNS