Moscow, July 20, 2026
Photo: patriarchia.ru
The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church adopted a document titled “The Church’s Attitude to Gene Therapy and Genetic Diagnostics” at its meeting on July 16, according to the Church’s official report on the session (Journal No. 57).
The Synod’s decision provides for the document to be subsequently reviewed by the Bishops’ Council as a further development of the corresponding provisions of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Basis of the Social Concept. The document was prepared by the Inter-Council Presence’s Commission on Theology and Theological Education.
The document’s preamble states that it analyzes the accumulation of knowledge about the human genome in recent decades and offers a Church perspective on the moral dimension of advances in biomedical technology, particularly in the area of various genetic manipulations. Its authors state that it is important to reflect on and give an ethical assessment of the issues connected with scientific progress in gene therapy and genetic diagnostics.
The document covers several areas: the history of the decoding of the human genome, the current state of hereditary diseases and prospects for gene therapy, the moral aspects of gene therapy, and ethical problems in genetic diagnostics and testing.
Among its positions, the document states that gene therapy aimed at correcting hereditary diseases in patients can be welcomed by the Church, provided such efforts do not involve experimentation on living human embryos. At the same time, the document firmly rejects proposals associated with transhumanist ideology that would permit anti-humanistic eugenic procedures, including the creation of “chimeric” or “transgender” human organisms or “higher” and “lower” formations, describing these as violating God’s design for humanity and demeaning human dignity.
On genetic diagnostics, the document holds that prenatal diagnosis can be considered morally justified when it is aimed at treating identified conditions at the earliest possible stages and at preparing parents to care for a child with health issues, but states that using prenatal diagnostics to select a child’s sex is entirely impermissible. It further states that genetic testing conducted in high-risk regions or hazardous workplaces must not be coercive or discriminatory in nature and requires the informed consent of the people involved.
In its conclusion, the document emphasizes that the Church holds it to be an unshakeable truth that the life of every human being begins with the irreversible union of paternal and maternal sex cells. Accordingly, it states, any further discussion of questions of genetic diagnosis and therapy, whether in the prenatal or postnatal period, concerns human life in its full completeness, integrity, and fragility.
The document’s authors conclude that members of the scientific community, lawmakers, and specialists in theology and bioethics bear a special moral responsibility to present and future generations.
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