This lecture uses a modern novel (Mendel's Dwarf) as a literary lens through which to highlight three themes relevant to moral thinking about pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and the selection of human embryos. These are:

Genetic screening to select preferred human embryos needs to be considered in the context of the long-running debate about the moral status of a human embryo.

In this lecture, I present my own sympathy for those within this debate who suggest that 'reasonable doubt' about a human embyo's moral status, coupled with the importance of neighbour-love, imply treating the human embryo as a person from conception when considering its use or disposal.

However, I also suggest that this does not necessarily preclude the elimination of human embryos in a screening process, but rather implies that the reasons for doing so should be especially compelling.

The principle of 'Procreative Beneficence' deals with these themes in a particular way which, I argue, is echoed in the work of two theologians whose account of human agents as 'co-creators' with God is influential in contemporary Christian bioethics, namely Ted Peters and Philip Hefner.

I argue that their approach leaves no space for God's ongoing activity in the world, and lacks a Trinitarian understanding of the relationship between divine and human action within which a wider variety of responses to biotechnological advance can be comprehended.

Samuel Well's depiction of Christian ethics as 'Improvisation' is presented as an insightful corrective to theological deficiencies in this account. In particular, his appropriation of the notion of 'overaccepting' (from the world of theatrical improvisation) reinforces an appeal to the Christian understanding of human freedom as realising one's vocation as the appropriate basis for drawing conclusions about the practice of human genetic selection.

The priority of vocation in Christian thought challenges the notion that our lives become more worthwhile according to the amount of choice we have.

It recognises that experiences which we would not choose, or which are generally deemed to be 'disabling', can be used by God to contribute helpfully to our role in God's purposes (and thus to our flourishing as human beings). So I conclude that most available and foreseeable uses of pre-implantation genetic screening to 'select out' human embryos are unnecessary and presumptuous from a Christian perspective.


This is an abridged version of the Whitley Lecture, which was delivered on Sunday afternoon at the Baptist Assembly by the Revd Michael Peat. Michael serves the Whaley Bridge Uniting Partnership, and teaches at Luther King Theological College in Manchester.