Thursday, October 12, 2006

Mary Meets Dolly Interview at Genetics And Health

Rebecca Taylor of Mary Meets Dolly writes-

The Genetics and Health blog is a great online resource for all things genetics. It is written by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei, a Ph.D. in epidemiology and genetics and has been honored with a Forbes "Best of the Web" award.

Dr. Lei has a series called the Genetics Interview where she interviews a professional in the genetics field, usually with an M.D. or Ph.D. A few weeks ago she contacted me to do an interview for her site. It is up today. Here is the link:


Genetics Interview #20: Rebecca Taylor of Mary Meets Dolly - Genetics And Health

The science community on the Internet can very very anti-religious and hostile to the pro-life point of view. Dr. Lei is very courageous to offer Rebecca a forum to present some of the Catholic teaching on current issues in genetics and biotechnology to a largely secular audience.

I encourage faithmouse visitors to take a moment to leave a supportive comment on the Genetics And Health blog after Rebecca Taylor's interview. Here's mine-

Thanks Dr. Lei for the excellent interview.
Professing a 'neutral' or 'ethics free' posture on the destruction of human life is an ethical decision in itself. Secularists would like to think that their decisions are 'above' morality, but such a posture is impossible to defend. Dr. Lei asks whether preimplantation genetic diagnosis would be out of bounds at a Catholic hospital, but to argue the opposite would be to also profess a moral opinion.
Rebecca Taylor's standards are sane and reasonable, a reflection of both her Catholic faith and that of the original Hippocratic Oath, which include these precepts-

'I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone. To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death. Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion. But I will preserve the purity of my life and my art.'