By Viv Ball
Some people look up at the stars or at grandiose mountains to experience the awe of God but Joy McIntosh prefers looking down a microscope. Joy works at AgResearch, though you can often find her around Knox Presbyterian church, Lower Hutt, helping with Seismic, the group for early teens.
She is part of the Reproduction group at Wallaceville, researching what happens in the ovary leading up to ovulation. This work aims to allow farmers to control the birth rates of their stock from season to season. When there’s enough food, farmers want as many calves and lambs as possible, but when there’s severe conditions they want to be able to limit the numbers being born.
But talk to Joy and you’ll find her interest in biology is far wider than animal reproduction. It began as a young child when she would dissect bits and pieces she got from the butcher. After leaving school she completed a biochemistry degree at Canterbury and Lincoln universities, and more recently researched for a PhD in cell and molecular biology at Victoria University.
While that research brought up questions about the ethical boundaries biologists now face, she says. “I guess where God has taken me over the years is to see that, while technology allows us to do a lot of things, there are some boundaries that we shouldn’t go beyond. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.”
As a Christian biologist, she came face to face with this dilemma when applying for a job as an embryologist. “I knew that there were several ethically grey areas in the IVF methods, the most important one to me being the number of spare or waste embryos that were produced and not used, but I had thought the outcome for the couple of a healthy baby was worth these dilemmas.” But Joy decided not to pursue the job, because of her growing sense that some of its implications were “outside of God’s purpose for us”. “But I would like to see more effort put into the grey areas by scientists… and I think God has given us the capability to find these methods if we look.”
Another area where Christian scientists have the challenge of integrating their faith and their work is the evolution versus intelligent design debate. Joy says it’s an area in which people on both sides of the debate are searching for what’s true. “The more I see and read about what other scientists are finding out and gather more information myself, the more evidence there is to support God as an amazing creator.”
Living as a follower of Christ is top of Joy’s list. She says her faith often comes into her work and she thinks it is important for Christians in all areas to have a voice. “Whether I exercise my voice strongly enough, I’m not sure. Everyone at work knows I’m a Christian and we’ve had some good discussions.”
Joy believes it would be good if more Christians who are scientifically inclined looked at science as a career. “God needs Christians there.”
Copies of a talk Joy gave at Knox on some of the issues above are available; contact the church office on office@knoxstc.org.nz