Jon Holato

Over the weekend Pope Benedict condemned genetic engineering of humans and other scientific methods that allow for people to predetermine what their children will look like. Additionally, the Pope spoke out against artificial insemination, and the use of tests that detect diseases and inherited disorders in the womb (while it’s not bad to check on the health of your child, I can see this leading to a higher rate of abortion).

“In developed countries, there is a growing interest for the most sophisticated biotechnological research to introduce subtle and extensive eugenics methods in the obsessive search for the ‘perfect child’,” the Pope said.

Benedict said the right to life is being increasingly challenged, with countries in Latin America seeking to legalize abortion and some of the richest countries considering euthanasia as law. He also denounced the increasing practice of civil unions as an alternative to marriage.

I agree 100% with his criticisms of genetic engineering to create so called “designer babies.” Have we lost all appreciation for the sanctity of life that we can potentially throw away our naturally-bred children for ones we like better? Picture mothers dropping their children off at preschool in the beginning of the day then returning to pick them up in the afternoon, but rather than grab their own children to return home with, they choose one that they like better, for whatever reason from physical attractiveness, personality, maybe even a lack of handicap. It doesn’t matter. This is just wrong, and not even from a Christian standpoint alone, but from what it means to be human.

Isn’t the whole point of having children to create a human life that reflects both mother and father, as the child-to-be comes from both mother and father’s chromosomes? If you genetically alter ANY of the natural process, you are tainting the innate connection between you and your child. In which case, if your offspring aren’t really you, why even bother?