DESIGNER BABIES - Put yourself in their shoes!

The apostle Paul said "all things are lawful but not all things are profitable" [1 Corinthians 10:23]. How true this is in the real world; so many things seem reasonable and right to the human mind but are not at all pleasing to God.

The Brits have decided "the creation of so-called 'designer babies' to treat siblings with genetic disorders is lawful." Doesn't that sound reasonable and profitable?

The term is "tissue typing" (notice the avoidance of pejorative terms such as fetal or baby). Basically, a group of babies are conceived in Petri dishes from the eggs of a donor mother and the sperm of a donor father. At a certain point the resulting embryos are examined to determine if any can fill the "order" placed with the lab by the parents. If one does, it is harvested (meaning the mother is impregnated InVitro), the rest are either disposed of or frozen (at a cost) for later use.

The context of this sad scenario is a British couple whose first child (now six) was born with an extremely rare blood disorder (beta thalassaemia major); he requires daily treatments and frequent blood transfusions. I can't put myself in their shoes ... impossible to do ... but I can feel horrible for them and be grateful that my wife and I were spared such a trial.

I can also say what is right and what is wrong. If your worldview is a godless one, one without divine intent for mankind, then your opinion concerning embryonic harvesting will side with science; if your worldview includes a God, who has a divine intent, then your opinion will lean toward a pro-life position ... meaning you see life created and destroyed for the sake of science, a function strictly reserved by God for Himself.

Let's be honest about what's going on here. It may be true that those whose lives are tragically affected can be helped by the science, and they most likely have a genuine interest in a humanitarian result. But behind the scenes, where the money is, very few of those involved in such futuristic enterprises have altruistic objectives. To be the next Salk, Hubble, Einstein, or Pasteur, to rise up from the grey bog of scientific obscurity is an ego and greed driving force that only those involved can understand.

The issue was taken up in the House of Lords and the presiding Lord, in the lead opinion, comes off sounding confused and conflicted; here is some of the news report ...

Lord Hoffman, giving the lead judgment yesterday, said Mrs Hashmi had twice conceived naturally in the hope of having a child whose umbilical blood could provide stem cells for Zain. On the first attempt, the foetus was found to have beta thalassaemia major and she had an abortion. On the second occasion, she gave birth to a child whose tissue turned out not to be compatible.

"There is a way to save the Hashmi family from having to play dice with conception," Lord Hoffman said. This involved removing a single cell from a newly-fertilised IVF embryo and testing it for genetic disorders in a process called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).

"Mrs Hashmi, for example, would have been spared having to have her foetus carrying beta thalassaemia major aborted if the embryo had been created by IVF and the disorder diagnosed by PGD," he said.

You see, the esteemed lead Lord considers being "aborted" an unfortunate end for a naturally conceived "foetus" but doesn't see anything unfortunate about the laboratory disposal of a clinically conceived "foetus" in each of several Petri dishes. This reveals a worldview absent a personal deity or at best an extremely shallow comprehension of what he believes his deity to be.

We realize that parents love their sick child deeply, but their worldview fails to consider the possibility that in the process of saving his life they cost several other children the loss of their lives ... and the love their brother received.

Is God so cold-hearted that He would allow families to suffer like this? No! He is a sovereign God and sees the road ahead for mankind; he has ordained the sanctity of human life for a reason and that reason has to do with a love so deep "He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." [John 3:16]

We do not comprehend the mind of the Potter, we are mere pots ... some made for the shelf, some for the table, some marred, some gleaming in the sun's light, and some for brief use and then not again. Who are we to question the Potter?

Additional ethical questions do arise with this issue, many will not soon go away.