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A new online collection of church and ecumenical statements on bioethics and biotechnology has been launched by the global ethics network Globethics.net (www.globethics.net), developed in collaboration with the World Council of Churches. The collection contains more than 250 documents from ecumenical organizations, and Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic traditions.
The documents cover issues such as stem cell research, cloning and organ transplants, and are classified by theme and by organization or institution. The impetus for the collection came from a meeting of a WCC working group on genetic engineering, Dr Martin Robra, special advisor to the WCC general secretary, told participants at the launch on 19 November at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva. The working group wanted to create an overview of the work in this area by churches and church-related organizations.
Research was undertaken by Dr Gary Vachicouras, a biologist and theologian, then a lecturer at the Orthodox Centre of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy, Switzerland, who now works for the Hardt Foundation, Geneva. The collection has been further developed and placed online by Globethics.net staff, including the development of a detailed classification tree by institution and theme.
Speaking at the presentation of the collection, Dr Robra said he hoped it would help stimulate further dialogue between scientists and church institutions. “We need to have this dialogue in order to understand each other and the questions we need to ask,” he said.
The online collection can be accessed at: www.globethics.net/web/church-statements-on-bioethics
It is part of the Globethics.net Global Digital Library on Ethics, and is also available to users of the Global Digital Library on Theology and Ecumenism, a joint project of Globethics.net and the WCC with other organizations.
Globethics.net is a global network promoting reflection and action on ethics, with a head office in Geneva, and which offers access to a large number of resources on ethics, especially through its online ethics library.
