ABSTRACT
Medical ethics is the study of the morality of human behaviour in the practice of medicine. Christianity has had a great deal to say about this over the centuries. Richard Harries's contribution to the discourse has been outstanding, for two reasons. The first is that he has the intellectual, spiritual and emotional capacity to address issues in medical ethics with competence and clarity. The second is that he is prepared to enter the places in our society where the debates are happening, not as a dogmatic critic but as a participant. The chapter focuses on the subject of genetics in relation to the human embryo, as Richard Harries's contribution to thinking and policy formation on this has been considerable, high profile and, too many minds, controversial. Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis involves genetically testing an embryo to discover whether it contains a faulty gene likely to give rise to a genetic disorder, before the embryo is implanted in the mother's womb.
