Support for federally funded research on embryonic stem cells

Abstract

In the pronouncement on "The Church and Genetic Engineering," the Seventeenth General Synod (1989) noted significant developments in the field of genetics. It spoke of the development of genetics from the foundation of modern genetics by the Austrian monk, Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), to the discovery of the structure of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) by James Watson and Francis Crick (1953). Since then research in the field of genetics and genetic engineering has opened new ways to produce products such as insulin, interferon, growth hormones and several other proteins used to treat various diseases. In 1990, the Human Genome Project was initiated by the United States Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to map and sequence all the genes of human beings by the year 2005. The Genome Project was completed early and last year (2000) the completion of the project was announced with great fan-fare by President Clinton.