Parents in Silicon Valley are spending up to $50,000 for new genetic-testing services that include promises to screen embryos for high IQ. In related news, a Chinese scientist who, six years ago, created the world’s first gene-edited babies has now set up a company in the US he’s calling the “Walmart of gene editing” to produce high-IQ babies. A woman who was briefly married to this scientist is also creating a company in New York City to compete with him in creating gene-edited babies.
Moral questions abound, of course, from the ethics of altering genes in ways that will be inherited and thus alter the species, to the fairness of using technology to benefit only those who can pay, to the wisdom of modifying genetics without knowing the unintended consequences of such experimentation.
Here’s what no one seems to be asking, however: Are the embryos being tested and modified human? No one is asking because the answer is so obvious.
And this fact points to the truth I want to highlight today.
Scientists record embryo implanting in a womb
First, let’s consider a second story in the same context. An article recently published on NPR begins this way: “For the first time, scientists have recorded a human embryo implanting into a womb in real time, a feat the researchers hope will lead to new ways to treat infertility and prevent miscarriages.”
The story quotes Samuel Ojosnegros, head of bioengineering in reproductive health at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia in Spain: “Being able to record a movie of something that has never been seen before, which are the early steps of life—of human life—was mind-blowing.” The article then explains, “One of the most important steps in an embryo’s journey to becoming a baby is when the microscopic ball of cells implants in the uterus. But how a human embryo implants in the womb has long been a mystery.”
Here’s what struck me: the article (like others covering this story) consistently refers to the embryo being implanted as “human.” This is because it cannot be anything other. Its DNA, chromosomes, and cells clearly are not those of any other species or entity.
And yet the article states that implantation in the womb is “one of the most important steps” in the journey to “becoming a baby” (my emphasis). The embryo is already “human” but not yet a “baby”?
Abortion, Hamas, and mental gymnastics
This distinction is fundamental to legalized elective abortion. It was cited by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade: “We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins.” It is the rationale for those who say they are “pro-choice” but not necessarily “pro-abortion”: since “no one knows for sure when life begins,” the choice should be with the mother, or so we’re told.
Consider the logic of such mental gymnastics. A human embryo is by definition human, whatever its stage of development. No one who came to this question with objectivity regarding abortion would think otherwise. A strong bias for elective abortion is required to outweigh and overcome what is otherwise obvious.
We can apply the same reasoning to the pro-Hamas demonstrations that broke out after the terrorist group committed horrific atrocities against Israeli civilians on October 7. Thousands were murdered; many were raped and mutilated; children were massacred. By what logic would we expect students who claim to support the “oppressed” to take the side of the oppressor who instigated such atrocities?
Once again, mental gymnastics are brought to bear. In this case, Critical Theory applies Marxist ideology to paint Israel as the oppressor and colonizer of Palestinians and then to defend any Palestinians who oppress their oppressor in their quest for “justice.” Massacred children and babies are ignored.
Why we committed our last sin
Our ability to justify whatever enables us to do what we want is at the center of the fallen human condition. In this sense, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9).
You and I are not exempt. The last time we sinned, we did what we knew not to do or did not do what we knew to do. But while we knew that “sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15), we somehow justified our behavior to ourselves.
This fact points to a theme we’ve been discussing all week: our only hope for resolving human conflict and improving human flourishing lies in the transformation Christ brings to the human heart. Ann Voskamp was right: “Peace isn’t a place to arrive at but a person to abide in.” This is why we’ve explored ways we can experience the risen Lord Jesus more intimately in our quest to love God with “all” our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30).
The same principle applies to ways we “love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 31).
I have quoted and preached on Jesus’ statement that we are the “salt of the earth” more times than I can count (Matthew 5:13). But recently I read a commentary on this phrase by St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407) that gave me insight I had never considered before. He asked:
What do these words imply? Did the disciples restore what had already turned rotten? Not at all. Salt cannot help what is already corrupted. That is not what they did. But what had first been renewed and freed from corruption and then turned over to them, they salted and preserved in the newness the Lord had bestowed. It took the power of Christ to free men from the corruption caused by sin.
“The second most powerful force in the universe”
Human words cannot change human hearts. You and I cannot convict a single sinner of a single sin or save a single soul. This is the sovereign work of God’s Holy Spirit. But we can partner with the Spirit by speaking the words he leads us to speak and doing the things he leads us to do.
As we work, God works.
If we were engaged in editing genes, our work could change our species. If we are engaged in editing souls, our work will change eternity.
Billy Graham noted,
“Sin is the second most powerful force in the universe, for it sent Jesus to the cross. Only one force is greater—the love of God.”
With whom will you share the most powerful force in the universe today?
Quote for the day:
“To be a soul winner is the happiest thing in the world. And with every soul you bring to Jesus Christ, you seem to get a new heaven here upon earth.” —Charles Spurgeon
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