HOW TO BE A CHRISTIAN IN A BRAVE NEW WORLD
By Joni Eareckson Tada & Nigel M. de S. Cameron
Zondervan. 222 pages. £9.99
ISBN 0 310 25939 8
Imagine: British scientists apply for a licence to create embryos that will be part human (99.9%) and part rabbit or cow (0.1%). Now wake up: it is about to happen here in Britain in the interests of stem cell research.
I read about that in The Times the day I finished reading this book and suddenly the sci-fi world seemed to land in my living room. What we need, I thought, is a theologian to take the lead of the crucial body in this debate — The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority — a pillar of the church who will have the ear of government. The Times went on to tell me that this is what we have: Lord Harries has been appointed chairman of the HFEA; that’s Richard Harries, the retired former Bishop of Oxford, yes the one who wanted to make Jeffery John the Bishop of Reading. He hopes that the development of what some papers called Frankenbunnies, will come within his remit. He does not think it a bad thing!
