Building the Perfect Beast

Don Henley had a song about 25 years ago by this name. He mentioned genetic engineering and refers to it as a Pandora's box, which is actually quite an apt allegory. Recent weeks have featured a movie based on a true story about a girl with a horrid disease, and her parents' attempt to make a baby as a 'spare parts' warehouse for the sick daughter. (I have read many positive reviews of the movie, but I am not really concerned about the entertainment value in this essay---more about the ethical value of the parents' decision.) We read of the harvesting of fetal stem cells from embryos which were left over from in vitro fertilizations.

Harvesting.

Like potatoes or beans or cotton.

Only with humans.

Jump in the wayback machine with me for a moment. Let's take a trip into the not-too-distant past.
In the late 1970s, lab experiments were conducted with the hoped-for outcome of producing a child for childless couples. Sounds like a page out of Huxley's novel, Brave New World, where people are created in labs and nurtured by machine, and motherhood (as well as childbirth) are considered barbaric. Anyway, it seems like a laudable goal...a loving mom and dad can't make a baby the old fashioned way, so Science steps in to assist. And in 1978, they finally succeeded. Louise Brown was born in England; the first 'test tube baby.'

And everybody's happy, right?

Maybe.

Remember, the outcome that is desired here is a fertilized egg. It is understood that a fertilized egg is the first step toward a viable human life. The next step cannot take place without it.

Many ova were removed from women and mixed with their husband's (or boyfriend's) sperm in hopes of achieving fertilization. Some are implanted back into the woman, and with a lot of luck and some skill, a pregnancy occurs.

But what of the unused embryos?

Some are unavoidably destroyed due to the nature of the process. Some spontaneously abort themselves. Some are selectively removed from the woman (to avoid multiple births.) Others are frozen and stored for later use.

But they were valuable as potential babies, right? Ok, ok, I am sorry. The pro-abortion people tell me they are actually 'tissue masses.' And what do we do with tissues? Throw 'em away.

Now we've gone from Science playing midwife to Science having an active hand in the creation process. You want twins? Not a problem. You say you want EIGHT babies? Pony up the cash, and the good doctor will hook you up. No man in the picture? Negative perspiration, mi amigo, we just dial up the sperm bank or get a good friend to serve as a donor. No woman in the picture? Hey, we rent-a-womb and voila! Like a pizza, just more expensive.

Life has become a commodity. In recent months, there has been news of 'sex selection techniques' which permit prospective parents to decide for themselves whether they want a boy or a girl. Genetic testing now permits mothers-to-be to abort their babies if it is determined the child possesses a defect of some sort. Legal abortions allow women to end their babies' lives at any time for nearly any reason prior to birth. As the price of these new medical procedures rises, the value of life seems to decrease.

Several things about this scenario trouble me greatly. First, we as people have taken it upon ourselves to determine the value of a life. That child-to-be's life will not be worth living, so let's be merciful and end it before it starts. Sounds so humane, doesn't it? But what's next? That child is one more than I can handle, so let's get rid of it before it's born. That child is the wrong sex, and we're only permitted to have one, so lets dump it and try again. We are treating children as if they were clothes in a discount store. Don't like this one? Throw it back into the pile. Better yet, throw it out.

And the leftovers? The not-good-enoughs? Hey, free enterprise and science say that we can use them for experientation! Dr. Mengele would be soooo proud! He went to prison for doing to post-birth people some of the same things that are now being done to fetuses. But hey, he was promoting the gain of scientific knowledge.

Genesis 3:6 - When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Sometimes a little knowledge isn't necessarily a good thing. Some things we are just not meant to know. We're playing in God's toolbox. When he was little, my son picked up some screwdrivers from my toolbox and nearly stabbed himself when he fell. He didn't know how to use the tools.

God knows how to use the tools, we don't. Remember<> The Sorcerer's Apprentice? Mickey Mouse made a big mess of the wizard's lab by playing Wizard.

He wasn't qualified to play wizard.

Neither are we.

Take a look at the world around us. Surrogate mothers. Mom and Mom. Dad and Dad. Marriage rates declining. Divorce rates increasing. Ethical arguments around what to do with the several thousand frozen embryos that will likely go unused by their parents. Sticky legal battles over who is the legal parent of a surrogate child, or of a 'sperm donor' child.

Who gets caught in the middle? The children.
Who suffers the most? The children.
So is it really about the children, or is it really about selfish people who want a child at any cost....even the cost of their ethical system?

Yeah, I mentioned the 'a' word, but this isn't really about abortion. It's about the value of life. Life, and what's really important. Life that was created (at least initially) in the image of God. And how we have co-opted that process so it now seems to look more like the chorus in the Don Henley song I mentioned at the beginning of this essay:

And now the day has come,
Soon he will be released!
Glory hallelujah!
We're building the perfect beast!

I am certain the Beast approves. I am equally certain that God does not.