MuslimMatters.org » Ethics http://muslimmatters.org Discourses in the Intellectual Traditions, Political Situation, and Social Ethics of Muslim Life Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:23:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 en Craig Venter: Playing God? http://muslimmatters.org/2007/10/27/craig-venter-playing-god/ http://muslimmatters.org/2007/10/27/craig-venter-playing-god/#comments Sat, 27 Oct 2007 14:31:59 +0000 iMuslim http://muslimmatters.org/2007/10/27/craig-venter-playing-god/ “For the first time, God has competition“, Pat Mooney, the ETC group.

This is one of the quotes that the rector of Imperial College London, Sir Richard Sykes, chose to introduce the infamous biologist, Dr Craig Venter, who had been invited to present a Centenary Prestigious Lecture, on the evening of October 23rd. Dr Venter is best known for his work on the Human Genome Project, founding the company Celera Genomics. Recently, he was the first individual to have read through his own genome, and was named one of the Top 10 hottest nerds by Newsweek. As if that wasn’t enough for his C.V., Dr Venter has re-entered the limelight with the announcement that his team will soon be the first to create an artificial life-form: a synthetic microbe. It is no surprise that such an amazing feat in Biology has been accompanied by grave accusations that Venter is attempting to “play God”. As a Muslim and a biologist, I had to seriously question the validity of such a statement; how would this development sit with my core belief that there is only one being capable of creating life: Allah, Al-Khaliq - God, the Creator?

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]]> http://muslimmatters.org/2007/10/27/craig-venter-playing-god/feed/ The New Age of Infanticide: Muslim Musings on Abortion http://muslimmatters.org/2007/04/24/the-new-age-of-infanticide-muslim-musings-on-abortion/ http://muslimmatters.org/2007/04/24/the-new-age-of-infanticide-muslim-musings-on-abortion/#comments Wed, 25 Apr 2007 01:39:16 +0000 Tawfique http://muslimmatters.org/2007/04/24/the-new-age-of-infanticide-muslim-musings-on-abortion/ Sometime ago the Australian Medical Association asked our medical department for our vote on legalizing Mifeprestone (RU486) in Australia in yet another attempt to make non-invasive abortion more accessible to Australian women. At that time, it took a woman about AU$120 to get an abortion done as medicare pays for the rest. There were about 84,000 abortions performed in Australia in 2003. Pro-choice argue that even this is too restrictive on women, especially on those women in rural areas, so they want the medicare itemed RU486 to be legalized. It is for this reason that attempts are underway to de-criminalize abortion in those states that require a ‘lawful’ abortion to be performed, even though there has not been a successful prosecution for unlawful abortion since 1970s. At 84,000 abortions a year, I strongly doubt that they are all legal abortions and in reality, practise is more common than we are led to believe.

Is there a need to make abortion even more accessible to women, especially since the age of women asking for abortion is getting lower and lower?

I watched with amazement at the 60,000 signatures and hand prints collected to prevent (more…)

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