Draft: this lesson was written with AI help and has not yet been read by a human editor.
1 What your class asks
This lesson asks you to analyse, on the basis of research, social and ethical implications of research in genetics and genomics. The museum does not teach genetics or the technologies named in the curriculum. It offers one record, a religious body's answer on cloning plant cells, attributed to it and not a ruling of the museum, and your class must bring the research and the other perspectives from elsewhere. The record concerns multiplying plant cells, which it describes as leaving the genetic content unchanged; it is not a case of genetic modification. 1
Curriculum expectations, with their official codes
- D1.1 analyse, on the basis of research, some of the social and ethical implications of research in genetics and genomics […] [IP, PR, AI, C]
2 The lesson
Who is asked, and what do they say it depends on?
Note who asked, who answered, and the conditions the answer sets. Then list which of those conditions a scientist could check and which belong to a wider public discussion.
Go deeper
Read the answer as a chain of reasons, each attributed to the body that gave it. In the fatwa on cloning plants, Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that scholars define plant cloning as a biological process forming a group of cells that yields a plant with improved output which reproduces without any change to its genetic content 2. It added that the earth and what is on it were made subservient for human benefit, with humans commanded to set it right and avoid corrupting it 2. It said the scope the Sharia allows for non-human cloning is set by two words, securing benefits and warding off harms, with the judgment of these referred to experts and specialists 2. If the process improves the plant and its output without harm to the consumer or disruption of the plant ecosystem, there is no objection; if it leads to harm to people or disrupts the plant ecosystem, it is not permitted 2.
Often misunderstood
A fatwa in the museum is easy to read as the museum's own position. The record presents it otherwise: the museum records the text as a historical document attributed to the body that issued it, and issues no ruling of its own 2. The question concerns cloning plant cells, and the Department's own definition describes plant cloning as reproducing without any change to its genetic content 2.
How do we know?
Ask what the record tells you about its own source. Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 4010, dated 6 October 2025 2. The record names no questioner; it says only that the questioner asked about cloning plants 2. The definition of plant cloning is given as what scholars say, not as the Department's own research 2. The Department cited the resolution of the International Islamic Fiqh Academy at its tenth session in Jeddah in 1997, that cloning and genetic engineering techniques may be used for microbes and other micro-organisms, plants and animals within the limits of the Sharia's controls 2. The record gives that resolution only as the Department cites it.
Think about it
The Department's conclusion depends on harm being shown not to occur, and it refers the judgment of benefits and harms to experts and specialists 2. Take a position and answer the strongest objection to it: who should decide what counts as shown, the experts alone or a wider public as well, and why?
Into the museum
- Cloning plants: the question, the answer and the resolution of the Academy that the Department cites.
- Bequeathing one's organs after death: another answer from the same Department, with its own stated reasoning.
- IIFA resolution 266 on genetically modified foods of animal origin: a later resolution of the Academy, with three conditions.
Try this
Read the museum's record on cloning plants and make two lists from it: the benefits it names and the harms it names. Add one benefit and one harm of a genetic technology your class studies.
3 Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or sent anywhere. It is for you.
In your own words: what does Cloning plants have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
A question about cloning plant cells. Asked about cloning plant cells and multiplying them to make juices and food additives, Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that scholars define plant cloning as forming a group of cells that yields an improved plant reproducing without change to its genetic content. It said using cloning in plants is unobjectionable provided it is shown not to harm the consumer or disrupt the plant ecosystem, and that experts judge benefit and harm. Which benefits and harms would your class weigh?
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