Designer Babies... One Step Closer to Playing God

On Tuesday 3rd February, the British Government debated a change to the law for IVF treatment, and allowed to pass the notion of babies to be created from three parents. Of course, the reason for this, we are told, is to "offer help" to those mothers who have a genetic disorder which can be passed on to their child, thereby genetically modifying a human being so they won't be affected by genetic disease or illnesses. We have been led to believe this is the ONLY reason for allowing this procedure to be carried out, to take away the threat of genetic disorders which affect many children. Oh, and we have the assurance that "designer babies" will still be illegal. 

As a Christian, this concerns me deeply.
As a woman trying to conceive, this concerns me deeply.
As a hetrosexual married woman, this concerns me deeply.

At the risk of being politically incorrect, I am going to just say it as I see it! It doesn't make me a "bigot" just because I choose to believe the Word of God, and to make informed opinions based on what He says. So if you think you're going to be offended by what the Bible says.... stop reading now! 

If we look back at history, when "homosexuality", for example, was legalised, it was only a few decades before the spit in the face of God became an outright smack in His mouth (from where the Word proceeds), and "gay marriage" became legal. I watched in horror, knowing that the next step will be the legalisation of a gay couple to become equal genetic parents. In this, mankind is effectively saying, "Ha! God! You're wrong!! A family doesn't have to consist of an 'Adam' and an 'Eve'. We can, and will, do it our way. You can't stop us, and if you try, then you are as horrible a god as we knew you were." As well as saying, "God you have been making people sick and suffering from disorders for long enough, we're taking control and eliminating all illnesses created by you."

Judges 21:25(NKJ) In those days... everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

God is the Creator of life. That mankind has set himself against Him and is int he process of trying to create life without Him, is heading deeper into trouble. I personally, already think  God grieves over our nation and is in the process of turning His back on us (I'm not talking about those of us who are in a relationship with Him), as we AS A NATION refuse to repent over the sin we are actively engaged in... including this new turn in science.

I guess Jeremy Vine's series on Radio Two, "What makes us human?" would be a good starting point for so many people trying to understand whether this process of altering a baby's DNA is OK or not. What makes us human? I have heard science try to justify their progress because a baby is not human until it is born - that a fetus isn't worth considering as a human life. I say... WRONG! From the moment of conception, God knits us together in our mother's womb (Psalm 139:13). We are life. We are human. We have His breath within us which is what, in my opinion, makes us human. The very breath of God. "But babies don't start breathing straight away, not while the egg is developing!" No! BUT... God is right there, watching our "unformed substance" (Psalm 138:16) as it begins to take form in that secret hidden place. To do our own "knitting together" of human life is playing God. 

 

This next step of using IVF to "tweak" the DNA of a baby will have the boundaries pushed over the coming years; because why shouldn't anyone be denied the right to become a real parent, just because they chose to be married to someone of the same gender? Or why shouldn't a couple decide they want to create a baby using the best bits of both parents? And all this is accomplish-able through IVF, so why not make the best use of what tools are now available, shouldn't everyone have the right to have a perfect life - a beauty does give you sooo much better a start in life, so why shouldn't any parent be allowed to give their designer child the best possible start in life... Meanwhile, back on planet earth, hundreds of couples like me, who are hetrosexual and trying for a baby, have to play a postcode lottery to be given a slim chance of IVF.... although, for the record, I didn't fit the criteria, so am not eligible for IVF - even if I could have justified the ethics about going down that road! 

When IVF was first developed, it was a "tool" to aid a woman and her husband who were struggling to conceive naturally, the ability to have a child of their own.... then for a couple to include a doner parent, if needed (allegedly because a woman isn't producing her own eggs, for example).

Genetic modification was a "tool" to aid the perfect development of food, then of medical breakthrough... now of life itself.

I fear we are on a very slippery slope to self-destruction, as a nation, at trying to set ourselves up above God. Let me leave you with this final offering from Genesis 11 (CJB):

The whole earth used the same language, the same words... They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them in the fire.” So they had bricks for building-stone and clay for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city with a tower that has its top reaching up into heaven, so that we can make a name for ourselves and not be scattered all over the earth.” Adonai came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. Adonai said, “Look, the people are united, they all have a single language, and see what they’re starting to do! At this rate, nothing they set out to accomplish will be impossible for them! Come, let’s go down and confuse their language, so that they won’t understand each other’s speech.” (Bold is author's addition)

Let us not become complacent in what we see happening around us, or deceived into thinking that it is not as bad as some Christians are making out, because God will not be mocked (Galatians 6:7)! One day, He will call to account all of these people who are sticking two fingers in His face, slapping him in the mouth or kicking Him out of their lives... Then what will science have to "offer to help"??!

Father God, forgive us...