Harvard Chabad Scholar Discusses Genetic Engineering
Genetic engineering is only permissible by Jewish law when it is used to preserve life, and it should not be used in pursuit of specific personality and physical traits, Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe, Chabad’s scholar-in-residence from Harvard University, said during a talk in Kemeny Hall on Tuesday.
“Jewish law would frown on cosmetic designer babies but would encourage us to do everything we can to save a potential future child from a disease that actually poses a danger to them,” he said.
Although the Torah was written many centuries before genetic engineering technology was developed, Yaffe said it can still be used to address modern questions. Both the Torah and the Talmud — a compilation of Jewish laws — are “conceptual” and thus their specific teachings can apply to broader concepts, he said.
“I believe very strongly that if you look carefully at the way the Talmud deals with these issues, [it] basically says if you can think about it, if you can imagine it, if you can envision it, it’s probably going to happen, so let’s deal with it, or at least think about dealing with it,” Yaffe said.
Despite the technical differences, genetic engineering — which Yaffe defined as “creating alterations within the genome rather than through selective breeding that create different outcomes in terms of the expression of said genome” — is treated the same way under Jewish law as other forms of genetic manipulation, including cloning and stem cell research, according to Yaffe.
Yaffe, who has not received formal scientific training, said the increasing accessibility of science concepts in the past few decades allowed him to develop a general understanding of genetic engineering.
“Someone who devotes the time and the effort and has a reasonable background in learning things, in scholarship, should be able to acquire a basic knowledge of what’s going on,” he said. “That’s my excuse for standing here in front of you and discussing scientific matters.”
Although Leviticus 19:19, a portion of the Torah, states, “You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your animal mate with a different species,” most authorities conclude that this law does not completely preclude genetic engineering, Yaffe said. Because God created an unfinished, imperfect world, humans are permitted to improve it, he said.
Yaffe criticized efforts to engineer children with seemingly desirable qualities because scientists do not understand the full consequences of manipulating individual genes. Pursuing several specific genes can lead to different, unintended results, he said.
“For example, there seems to be a positive relationship between high IQ and bipolar disorder and certain other mental disorders,” he said.
By selecting seemingly-perfect traits for a child, “you may have created someone who is the perfect mass murderer who will never ever be caught,” Yaffe said.
Jewish law forbids endangering a person’s life if death can be avoided, according to Yaffe. This focus on the preservation of life requires genetic engineering to be used only in cases in which it is obvious that an unborn baby will develop a disease, he said.
“Because of the primacy of saving life, we would solve the problem now and worry about other problems later. Saving a life allows us to ignore unknowns,” he said.
Yaffe predicted that his interpretation of Jewish law with regard to genetic engineering will remain relevant in the future.
“I believe the time will come when we will understand precisely what all the [genes] do,” he said. “At that point, we will be able to know what the trade-offs are. However, even after we get to that point in history, we’ll have some issues.”
Genetic engineering may devalue the natural process of humans born with unique characteristics, deny the value of each human and result in the loss of talent, he said.
no one special
Genavas Daas!!!! This man is less connected to Harvard than their janitorial staff. Why are you fooling people???
Anonymous PhD.
Is he related to Y. Jacobsen.
Populist promotion of Torah (and self) with pseudo-scientific coating.
very proud
Rabbi Yaffe is brilliant and Chabad is lucky to have such a smart person clearify these important concepts.
OlyJew
This man is the scholar in residence at Chabad of Harvard.
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/… It would have been nice for you to check it out before writing an insulting comment.
Josh
And he’s as qualified to hold forth on genetic engineering as Charlie Buttons is to pasken sheilos,
Shlomo-s Relative
Lots of nastiness here… Josh, phd and the rest… why don’t you sit down one day and have a conversation with Rabbi Yaffe? I am sure that you will be impressed by his scholarship in matters of Torah, Chassidus, Halacha, Science and American Law, just to mention a few areas of his expertise. He also happens to be a really nice person, who truly cares about people.
Why during Sefira, are you taking the time to cast a fellow yid, chossid and a talmud chochom in a negative light? I hope that you will have the opportunity one day to meet Rabbi Yaffe, and you can see first-hand what thousands of people have experienced through his writings, speeches and classes throughout the world.
And he does, btw, work for Chabad of Harvard.
Also brilliant
There is, apparently, something about the way R.Y. talks that irks people here.
As for scholarship: Not everyone who uses big words, throws confidence in the air, and speaks on “tough” subjects, is necessarily brilliant.
From what I read here, he has raised more questions (some fundamental) than he has answered. Some ignorance is peeking out of the seams.
Critical Thinking
“For example, there seems to be a positive relationship between high IQ and bipolar disorder and certain other mental disorders,” he said.
By selecting seemingly-perfect traits for a child, “you may have created someone who is the perfect mass murderer who will never ever be caught,” Yaffe said.
This is a classic example of illogical scatterbrained un-proved hyperbolic non scientific thinking. Sorry. This is embarrassing.
Maginei Shlomo
“This is a classic example of illogical scatterbrained un-proved hyperbolic non scientific thinking. Sorry. This is embarrassing.”
You clearly need -ASAP- to share this sentiment with the author of this seminal study and the authors of the 395 peer-reviewed journal articles that have cited it since 1987:
http://ajp.psychiatryonline…
As for the other topic, since a scholarly article might be a bit tough for you, here is a popular-press article that references professional research into this topic.
http://www.odu.edu/ao/insta…
PS In the future, a few minutes on Google would save you much embarrassment…