KEY POINTS:
Auckland's new Anglican dean, Ross Bay, wants the church to embrace genetic engineering to cure disabilities such as Down syndrome - but he draws the line at parents deciding they don't want a baby with red hair.
Mr Bay, 42, vicar of St Mark's Church in Remuera, will
replace Richard Randerson as Dean of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell in November.
His wife, Jacquie, runs a class for high school students at the Liggins Institute, an Auckland University research centre focusing on child health and human development.
"My particular interest is the debate to be had about the ethics of what gene technology and genetic engineering bring to society," Mr Bay said.
He supports parents' right to abort a fetus that was diagnosed with a disability such as spina bifida and said the same principle should apply to new techniques that might knock out the genes for conditions such as Down syndrome.
"But what about the child born with red hair? What do we say about the ethics of [influencing] that?" he said.
"Those are the two extremes. There's going to be a lot in the middle. Intelligence? I don't know that I know the answer but I'm interested."
He said the church's role was to help people to think about the issues, but it did not want to lay down the law.
"Gone are the days when most people in the church want to impose an ethic on people," he said.
When couples asked him about whether to abort a child diagnosed with spina bifida, he did not tell them what to do.
"It's a pretty tough decision for parents to make when faced with that information about the quality of life [of their prospective child]," he said.
"I'd hate to be a decision-maker. I wouldn't want to condemn people in those situations making a decision about abortion.
"I'm certainly not pro-abortion but I think there are situations where it's a necessary option, perhaps for health reasons."
He said the church view on such issues started with the sanctity of life.
"God is the source of life," he said.
"To what extent have human beings got a right to interfere with the natural course of life?"
Answering his own question, he said doctors already interfered by keeping people alive on life support machines, and he supported a family's right to cut off life support when there was no hope that a sick person could regain a normal life.
Mr Bay, born in Papatoetoe, served in Kohimarama and was vicar of Ellerslie for seven years before going to St Mark's in 2001.
