First Steps Off a Cliff

Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a researcher at Oregon Health and Science University, has genetically modified a one-cell embryo to cure the genetic defect of mosaicism. He used a technique called CRISPR and “fixed” the bad gene. In doing his experiments, the biologist created dozens of embryos through IVF donated eggs and sperms that contained this defective gene. After the modification of each embryo, the child was destroyed according to the laws governing genetic engineering.

Show us a terrible disease, and then we forget rational thought should govern laws. Ever since George W. Bush lifted the ban on experimenting on human embryos, over a decade ago, we were promised an array of cures for those suffering horrible diseases. Richard Nixon declared a war on cancer, but we still have many deaths from cancer despite billions of dollars spent on research. Just as abortion was supposed to be “safe, legal, and rare,” what is promised isn’t what’s real.

The moral aspect of this medical research is what is more critical to Catholics. If it was a mouse cell, then there would be no reason to object. But we aren’t talking mice, we’re talking a human embryo who in nine months grows into a visible baby.

Would we allow such experiments on a born child? Would we allow such experiments on Dr. Mitalipov? Catholics would not.

Today’s sad chapter of medical research has declared anything goes. Research hospitals, even those with Catholic saints’ names on them, do embryonic research, meaning some embryos are killed.

Many embryos used in research are “donated” by parents after in vitro fertilization. Catholics understand this is a grave offense against the dignity of human beings. IVF is not allowed for Catholics because it violates the natural union between husband and wife to bring forth children. IVF creates “extra” embryos that are a second class of baby not worth any respect or concern.

Curing childhood diseases is noble, but we must be moral in our approach. Doctors and scientists get things wrong sometimes.

Medicine needs checks and balances. These may have stopped the spread of the recent Zika virus outbreak, which was apparently caused by a genetically modified mosquito, for example. Tragically, instead of banning such experimentation, we told the victims to abort their damaged fetuses. Sometimes we look at science without the proper logic: that it’s limited, and should be limited when it comes to moral truths.

The bottom line is, the ends never justify the means. We cannot kill certain people to save others. And for those who argue a few seconds’ old embryo is not human, the truth is a tiny embryo given proper food and shelter over time grows to look just like you.

The creation and destruction of people is always wrong. We have seen in history how a set of people labeled “not human” have overcome that label primarily by moral outrage. We have no less duty to cry out against this latest experiment, even if those victims are at the earliest moments of life.

There is a popular musical performed in high schools that states, “a person’s a person, no matter how small.” If we really believed this, we wouldn’t be celebrating over a dozen embryos created for experiments, then destroyed. We’d be weeping.

References:

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608350/first-human-embryos-edited-in-us/