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    The Case For Genetic Engineering: Fred Rosner

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    The document discusses the case for genetic engineering in Judaism. It argues that genetic engineering for therapeutic purposes, like curing diseases, is permitted and even mandated based on biblical passages encouraging the use of knowledge to benefit humanity. However, human cloning poses significant ethical issues that require further examination, as it could challenge traditional concepts of procreation, paternity, and the natural order. While not necessarily prohibited, more discussion is needed on its spiritual and social implications before it can be condoned. Overall, genetic manipulation is allowed in Judaism when used for medical treatment and prevention of illness.

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    The Case For Genetic Engineering: Fred Rosner

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    132 views5 pages
    The document discusses the case for genetic engineering in Judaism. It argues that genetic engineering for therapeutic purposes, like curing diseases, is permitted and even mandated based on biblical passages encouraging the use of knowledge to benefit humanity. However, human cloning poses significant ethical issues that require further examination, as it could challenge traditional concepts of procreation, paternity, and the natural order. While not necessarily prohibited, more discussion is needed on its spiritual and social implications before it can be condoned. Overall, genetic manipulation is allowed in Judaism when used for medical treatment and prevention of illness.

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    The document discusses the case for genetic engineering in Judaism. It argues that genetic engineering for therapeutic purposes, like curing diseases, is permitted and even mandated based on biblical passages encouraging the use of knowledge to benefit humanity. However, human cloning poses significant ethical issues that require further examination, as it could challenge traditional concepts of procreation, paternity, and the natural order. While not necessarily prohibited, more discussion is needed on its spiritual and social implications before it can be condoned. Overall, genetic manipulation is allowed in Judaism when used for medical treatment and prevention of illness.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    132 views5 pages

    The Case For Genetic Engineering: Fred Rosner

    Uploaded by

    outdash2
    The document discusses the case for genetic engineering in Judaism. It argues that genetic engineering for therapeutic purposes, like curing diseases, is permitted and even mandated based on biblical passages encouraging the use of knowledge to benefit humanity. However, human cloning poses significant ethical issues that require further examination, as it could challenge traditional concepts of procreation, paternity, and the natural order. While not necessarily prohibited, more discussion is needed on its spiritual and social implications before it can be condoned. Overall, genetic manipulation is allowed in Judaism when used for medical treatment and prevention of illness.

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    FRED ROSNER

    The Case for


    Genetic Engineering

    T he Human Genome Project is the effort to map and sequence the


    entire complement of genetic material in the chromosomes of
    human beings—100,000 genes composed of about three billion base
    pairs of nucleotides which make up DNA.
    Does the genome project encroach upon the Divine plan for this
    world by interfering with nature as God created it? Is genetic engineer-
    ing tantamount to changing the Divine arrangement of Creation?
    Although some rabbinic authorities answer in the affirmative,1 most
    consider the acquisition of knowledge for the sake of finding cures for
    human illnesses to be divinely sanctioned, if not in fact mandated. God
    blessed Adam and Eve with the phrase “replenish the earth and subdue
    it” (Gen. 1:28). This phrase is interpreted by Ramban (Nahmanides) to
    mean that God gave human beings dominion over the world, in the
    sense that they may use animals, insects and all creeping things for the
    benefit of humanity. To subdue the earth, according to R. Samson Raphael
    Hirsch, is to master, appropriate, and transform the earth and its prod-
    ucts for human purposes. To have “dominion over the fish and over the
    birds and over every living thing on earth” (Gen. 1:28) means to use
    them for human benefit. The pursuit of scientific knowledge does not
    constitute eating from the prohibited tree of knowledge of Gen. 2:17.
    Whatever is good for humanity is both permissible and praiseworthy.
    King David states that “The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth

    FRED ROSNER, M.D., is Director of the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai


    Services at the Queens Hospital Center in Jamaica, New York and Professor of
    Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He has published many books
    and articles on Jewish medical ethics.
    211 The Torah u-Madda Journal (9/2000)
    212 The Torah u-Madda Journal

    He has given to mankind” (Ps. 115:16), thereby further supporting the


    concept that knowledge and its pursuit are legitimate activities for human
    beings and not considered an encroachment upon Divine prerogatives.
    Therapeutic genetic engineering and gene therapy that may result
    from knowledge derived from the genome project therefore does not
    violate the Torah by undermining God’s creation of the world as cross-
    breeding would (see Ramban’s commentary to Lev. 19:19). On the con-
    trary, it is a confirmation of the creation of the world by God. The use
    of scientific knowledge to benefit mankind is biblically mandated (cf.
    Ramban to Gen. 1:28). The use of such knowledge to heal illness and
    cure disease is also biblically allowed, based on the school of R. Yishmael’s
    talmudic interpretation (Bava Kamma 85a) of the phrase “and heal he
    shall heal” (Ex. 21:19), and perhaps is even biblically mandated based
    on Maimonides’ interpretation of the biblical obligation to restore a lost
    object (Deut. 22:2) as including the restoration of one’s lost health
    (Commentary to the Mishnah, Nedarim 4:4). The healing of illness
    includes the use of genetically engineered medications such as insulin
    and antibiotics. The cure of disease by gene therapy, if made possible by
    science, would also be sanctioned by Jewish law.
    The production of hormones such as insulin and erythropoietin, as
    well as of antibiotics and other therapeutic substances by genetic engi-
    neering through recombinant DNA technology, is permitted by Jewish
    law because nature is being properly used for the treatment and cure of
    illnesses. Gene therapy—such as the replacement of the missing enzyme
    in Tay-Sachs disease or the missing hormone in diabetes, or the repair
    of the defective gene in hemophilia or Huntington’s disease, if and when
    these become scientifically feasible—is also probably sanctioned by
    Jewish law, because it is meant to restore health and preserve and pro-
    long life. The technical medical problems of modifying the defective
    gene or genes in an individual sperm, ovum or zygote by gene surgery
    and implanting the replaced or repaired genes into the mother, thereby
    producing a healthy child, have not yet been surmounted. However,
    assuming gene surgery can be successfully performed, it would probably
    be sanctioned by rabbinic authorities as a legitimate implementation of
    the physician’s mandate to heal the sick.
    Another argument favoring the permissibility of gene surgery or
    genetic manipulation is the fact that neither the sperm nor the ovum
    nor even the fertilized zygote are persons. For this reason, gene manipu-
    lation is not considered tampering with an existing or even potential
    human being; that status is bestowed in Jewish law only upon a fetus
    Fred Rosner 213

    implanted in the mother’s womb. One can also argue that any surgery
    performed on a live human being must certainly be permitted on a
    sperm, ovum or fertilized zygote. For example, if surgical cures for
    hemophilia, Tay-Sachs disease or Huntington’s disease were possible,
    those procedures would surely be permissible. Hence, it should certainly
    be permissible to cure or prevent these diseases by gene surgery.
    Rabbi Moshe Hershler raises the question of whether it is permissi-
    ble to experiment with gene therapy to try to save the life of a child with
    thalassemia or Tay-Sachs disease, if the unsuccessful outcome of the
    experimentation would be a shortening of the child’s life.2 R. Hershler is
    of the opinion that gene therapy and genetic engineering may be pro-
    hibited because “he who changes the [Divine] arrangement of creation
    is lacking faith [in the Creator]” and he cites as support for his view the
    prohibition against mating diverse kinds of animals, sowing together
    diverse kinds of seeds, and wearing garments made of wool and linen
    (Lev. 19:19). This line of reasoning is rejected by Rabbis Shlomo Zalman
    Auerbach and Yehoshua J. Neuwirth, who reject the analogy between
    genetic engineering and grafting diverse types of animals or seed.3 The
    main purposes of gene therapy are to cure disease, restore health, and
    prolong life, all of which goals are within the physician’s Divine license
    to heal. Gene grafting is no different than an “organ graft,” such as a
    kidney or corneal transplant, which nearly all rabbinic authorities con-
    sider permissible.
    However, good is often not pure but is mixed with some potential
    danger. The genome project is certainly good in terms of its potential to
    lead to cure of diseases, but the project also raises many concerns inso-
    far as it raises the possibility of cloning.
    There is no specific halakhic prohibition against attempting to
    clone a human being. An example of the creation of an artificial human
    being or golem is cited in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 65b). The golem, how-
    ever, was not formed in and born from a woman’s womb and was there-
    fore not considered human. It was destroyed without that act constitut-
    ing murder. A cloned human being, however, has the full status of a
    human being. Although in Jewish law it is not prohibited to clone a
    human being, one should be very cautious and not do so indiscrimi-
    nately. Many potential scientific and Jewish legal problems will need to
    be dealt with first. The risks of producing serious birth defects in
    human cloning are not known.
    In Judaism, paternity is determined by the sperm.4 But in human
    cloning, no sperm is used; so who is the father? Does the couple that
    214 The Torah u-Madda Journal

    engages in human cloning fulfill the biblical concept of procreation? If


    DNA is used for cloning from a man other than the woman’s husband,
    is the child a bastard (mamzer) in Jewish law? Human cloning can be
    accomplished without any male input. Women will not need men to
    have children. The social and Jewish legal and moral implications of
    such human replication are mind-boggling. Are we converting or
    manipulating nature in ways that go beyond the scope of the Divine
    command to utilize nature for human benefit?
    There are no clear halakhic precedents in biblical or talmudic litera-
    ture. One study concludes that human cloning technology is permissi-
    ble “if used as a form of medical intervention for infertility or to correct
    genetic defects in children”.5 For many authorities, for man to create
    man may infringe upon the prerogatives of the Divine Creator. Even so,
    under very limited circumstances, “human cloning, when scientifically
    prudent and undertaken with appropriate safeguards, may be deemed
    appropriate and halakhically sound.” 6
    The possible deleterious effects of genetic engineering and gene
    therapy are not yet fully known. Can such genetic manipulation unmask
    inactive cancer genes? Thus, in addition to the medical and scientific
    aspects of genetic engineering, DNA recombinant research and human
    cloning, the spiritual and theological aspects also require exploration.
    Rabbis must examine these issues from the Jewish viewpoint and offer
    halakhic guidance to the medical and lay communities.
    In summary, genetic screening, gene therapy and other applications
    of genetic engineering are permissible in Judaism when used for the
    treatment, cure, or prevention of disease. Such genetic manipulation is
    not considered to be a violation of God’s natural law but a legitimate
    implementation of the biblical mandate to heal. If Tay-Sachs disease,
    diabetes, hemophilia, cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s disease or other
    genetic diseases can be cured or prevented by “gene surgery,” such inter-
    vention is certainly halakhically permitted.

    Notes

    1. Moshe Hershler, “Genetic Engineering in Jewish Law,” Halakhah u-Refuah,


    vol. 2 (Chicago, 1981), 350-353.
    2. Ibid.
    3. Abraham S. Abraham, Nishmat Avraham, vol. 4 (2nd edition, Jerusalem,
    1993), H.oshen Mishpat 425:2, pp. 215-218.
    Fred Rosner 215

    4. Abraham Steinberg, “Paternity,” Journal of Halacha and Contemporary


    Society, No. 27 (Spring 1994): 69-84.
    5. John D. Loike and Abraham Steinberg, “Human Cloning and Halakhic
    Perspectives,” Tradition 32, 3 (1998): 31-46.
    6. J. David Bleich, “Cloning: Homologous Reproduction and Jewish Law,”
    Tradition 32, 3 (1998): 47-86.

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