Centre for Bioethics and Public Policy (UK)

The Centre for Bioethics and Public Policy (CBPP) was established in the United Kingdom (with headquarters at Hanover Gardens in Kennington, in southeast London) as a “think tank,” to “make a difference in bioethics and national life by promoting clear ethical thinking, based on Judeo-Christian values.” Operating from its headquarters in London, its patrons are the Conservative Party peer and surgeon Lord McColl of Dulwich; Professor Edmund D. Pellegrino of the Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C.; and Professor Paul Schotsmans of the Catholic University of Louvain. In addition to serving on the CBPP, Pellegrino was appointed to the President's Council on Bioethics in September 2005.

The Centre's main goal was to deal with the genuine widespread public concern about the use of new technology in novel manners, and the worry that the human body might be able to be manipulated. It coincided with a concern about genes and genetic manipulation, and fell under the overall umbrella of the BioCentre, established in 1984, when ethical and moral issues were raised over in vitro fertilization and other new medical practices. It was feared that nanotechnology, mainly because of the small size of the resulting products and the diverse way in which they could be used, could pose similar moral and philosophical dilemmas. Keen to maintain the dignity of the individual, BioCentre had been very successful in bringing together physicians, scientists, researchers, ethicists, church groups, and lawyers, maintaining an ecumenical Christian basis for their beliefs, one that was reflected in the Centre for Bioethics and Public Policy.

Rachel Bell, the associate director at the CBPP, argued in a discussion paper that many Christians were becoming worried about what was happening in the realm of nanoscience. Genetic manipulation of products—both foods and also other items—was also capable of dramatically changing the world and the concept that a Christian God had made man in “His own image,” and therefore this very cornerstone was under threat by these new medical and scientific procedures. Although the CBPP certainly does not claim to have the answers to these questions, its ability to bring together Christians and scientists hoped to encourage the acceptance [Page 86]of nanoscience by a questioning population in Britain, and sought to monitor or possibly halt research in some of the more controversial fields.