There’s an old saying in Latin: Omni trinum perfectum (all things are perfect in threes). It is a saying that emerges from the Trinitarian Theology but is meant somewhat playfully. The other day, however, something was announced that definitely is not perfect in threes. A frightening piece in the BBC News describes three where there should be two, or, two’s company but three’s an unnatural crowd. Here are some excerpts from the original article along with my comments in plain red text. The full article is available here: Three’s a Crowd!
A public review into the three person IVF technique has been broadly supportive, says the Department of Health. In other words, this technique involves taking genetic material from one sperm and TWO eggs. That equals three parents in case you hadn’t noticed.
The move would be restricted to mitochondrial disease, affecting one in 6,500 UK babies born each year. Now you know that what the radicals propose as a rare and unique procedure is going to be available to anyone who wants it for any reason within a few short years. Some of us are old enough to remember that abortion was initially proposed only for those rare cases in which the life of the mother was threatened. But that was just a placeholder in order to get the approval. Approval having been granted, now here comes everybody! And those who sought to keep the awful procedure safe, legal, and rare, are now proposing it as a kind of sacrament of the women’s movement to which everyone should have access. So let these latest “safe, legal, and rare” proponents be aware that many of us don’t believe their “thoughtful limitations” approach.
[Mitochondrial Disease] may lead to muscle weakness, blindness, and heart failure. Using the parents’ sperm and eggs plus an additional egg from a donor woman should prevent such conditions, say scientists at Newcastle University. And here is the proverbial sheep’s clothing. I suppose that all of us would like to prevent every possible negative outcome in life. And all these nice people want to do is to prevent bad things from happening to other nice people. All this is praiseworthy but it does try to make a good thing out of tampering with DNA and turning human life into a technology or a “deliverable.” There are many unintended consequences that go along with such approaches. For example, how will this further affect the way we regard the disabled? As it is, up to 90% of babies with poor prenatal diagnoses are aborted. So beware—all of our “niceness” about trying to make life more pleasant and perfect has created pressure to abort what is regarded as imperfect life if we can’t “fix it.” It is hard not to describe the massive number of abortions of disabled children as a bloodbath and a kind of genocide. It all parades around under the pleasant guise of trying to alleviate suffering, but at the end of the day our insistence on perfect outcomes take us to some pretty dark places.
Any children born using the procedure would not be able to find out the identity of the mitochondrial donor. Why not? Whom are the proponents trying to protect and why?
Opponents say it is unethical and could set the UK on a “slippery slope” to designer babies … Dr. David King, director of Human Genetics Alert said: “Looking back 15 years from now in the midst of a designer baby marketplace, people will see this as the moment when the crucial ethical line was crossed. Exactly!
Well, there you have it. Heather has three parents. Why should this be opposed? For many of the same reasons we must oppose in vitro fertilization. (Since most of you, my readers, are Catholic, I put forward here a religiously based argument. I will leave arguments based on natural law to others.) We have gotten into the very bad habit of trying to play God when it comes to human life. Clearly the most egregious example of this is abortion. There, we play God by sentencing innocent life to death. This is life that God has created (cf Jer 1:4; Psalm 139). In effect, we snatch the life from God’s creative hands and say, “This shall not be.” But we also play God by insisting that infertile couples have a right to conceive and bear children when nature and nature’s God have said no. With in vitro fertilization we go beyond assisting fertility and then depending on the marital act. Rather, we sideline the God-given manner for conception and turn it into a technology in a petri dish. This, too, is a way of telling God, “This shall not be” (in reference to infertility and normal conception). There are many problems with in vitro fertilization that have caused the Catholic Church to forbid it.
- Life as a consumer product – In IVF, a fertilizable ovum is removed from a woman’s ovary and put in a petri dish (the Latin for dish is vitrum), to which a few concentrated drops of sperm are added. This separates human conception from the marital act, its sacred and proper place, where God acts to bestow life. IVF places conception in the laboratory, where man controls the process, treating it as a technology and as a consumer product rather than as part of a mystery of fruitful love caught up in the marital embrace and the love God.
- No person and no couple has a “right” to a child. A child is a person with rights; he or she is not merely an object, a possession, or a technological product.
- God is Wrong! From a faith perspective, IVF refuses to accept God’s “failure” to act in accord with the wishes of the couple to conceive and so tries to remove Him from the decision. God may be teaching something to them through their infertility. Perhaps He wants them to adopt; perhaps He has special work for them to do or a cause to which He wants them to be devoted. But IVF suspends such discernment and forces the solution.
- There is a strong bias today toward caring only about what is best for adults. This is widespread in our culture. If adults are unhappy they can divorce regardless of what this does to children, who have no legal voice or say in the matter. Further, if a child comes at an unexpected or inopportune time, many just abort. Again, it is the adults who matter. In IVF there is also some of this thinking since what seems to matter most is that the adults want a baby. Never mind that IVF may encourage us to think of life as a technology to be exercised at our whim rather than as a sacred mystery. Never mind that imperfect embryos are discarded or frozen. Never mind that many IVF procedures lead to selectively aborting later on. Never mind that IVF children are more often born prematurely and suffer higher rates of birth defects. What matters is what adults want and demand.
- Fix the disabled … or else! – In recent years a kind of genocide has been occurring against the disabled. Because we can often predict deformities and hardships and because we “can” abort them, we do—in huge numbers. The attitude is that imperfect or disabled life must go. Today, as many as 90% of babies with a poor prenatal diagnosis are aborted. Some might argue that this procedure will help prevent disabled or imperfect babies. But what we are really doing is insisting on our “right” to be without imperfect babies. And we seem to be willing to go to any lengths (including three parents) to achieve it. Pretty soon, having babies outside “the factory” will be frowned upon and insurance policies will refuse to care for handicapped children born in the “traditional” way. More abortions, more bloodshed is sure to follow our insistence on perfect babies.
- Discarding Embryos – As already stated, it is standard practice to fertilize more eggs than are needed. This is because not all embryos survive. If “too many” embryos survive, the rest are either discarded (i.e., killed), mined for stem cells (i.e., killed), or frozen for future use.
For reasons such as these, the Church considers IVF to be gravely sinful.
You can read more here: INSTRUCTION ON RESPECT FOR HUMAN LIFE IN ITS ORIGIN AND ON THE DIGNITY OF PROCREATION.
There are certain procedures allowable to Catholics that enhance fertility but do not remove or replace the marital act. But for the reasons stated above, IVF is far beyond what is approved.
So here we are with another cultural showdown. IVF and abortion have this in common: they both involve playing God and saying that I have a right over life, that I call the shots. Further, though many of the proponents of IVF services may choose not to think so, discarding embryos is killing; it is aborting. Freezing them is a cruel delay and a further indignity. Imagine keeping children on ice until their arrival is more convenient. And what if they never become convenient? The “big chill” continues until they become stale (i.e., dead). Disclaimer: There are likely many well intentioned couples who may never have thought through all of this, or have been misguided, or are just so desperate for a child that they’ll do almost anything. But in the end, IVF is problematic and morally wrong for the reasons outlined above. We live in times in which too many think that they can just have whatever they want. Many think that if we can do something, we should be free to do it. But there are other things at stake than just what people want. There is reverence for the sacred mystery of life; there is concern for the common good; there is the matter of what happens to imperfect or “superfluous” embryos; there is the matter of what happens to the disabled; and finally, there is the matter of where this will ultimately lead. This latest proposal goes another hideous step forward by tinkering with life in such a way that now three parents will be involved in the petri dish. Who’s your Daddy? Or in this case, who’s your Mommy? Natural family ties will be affected. And don’t tell me that there won’t be lawsuits if two mothers start to fight over the baby. Even Solomon would have a hard time sorting all this out!
For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works (Psalm 139:13-14).
+“And may the GOD of peace HIMSELF sanctify you in all things; that your whole SPIRIT, and SOUL, and BODY, may be preserved blameless in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:23
Our Heavenly Father has created us in His Image as . . . TRIUNE BEINGS . . . BODY, SOUL and SPIRIT . . . and . . . (among all the other gravely serious spiritual and moral considerations re the prospect of “three“ genetic parents of one baby) . . . the extraordinarily problematical . . . ! . . . introduction of a third genetic DNA strain . . . into an individual’s life . . . through the already tried experimental medical science of . . . organ transplants . . . has already . . . CLEARLY . . . revealed itself to be . . . sometimes . . . fraught with very serious side effects . . . clearly affecting the WHOLE person . . . body, soul and spirit . . . of the individuals who have received transplants . . . Emotions, personalities and character traits have at times . . . DISTINTLY . . . been irrevocably changed in transplant recipients in . . . wide ranging ways . . . some quite radical . . . as have physical likes and dislikes such as . . . taste . . . color . . . and . . . food preferences . . . etc. . . . and gifts and talents have changed in amazing transformations . . . just to mention a few observed life affecting changes in recipient patients . . . in other words . . . the “personhood” of the individual has been . . . altered . . . with the degree of the . . . observable . . . alterations . . . varying . . . from patient to patient . . .
In the case of organ transplants . . . below is just a . . . “tip of the iceberg” . . . portion of information in the mass of ongoing research that has emerged following the revelation of . . . extraordinarily unusual! . . . LIFE CHANGING . . . side effects of organ transplants containing another individual‘s DNA being introduced into a recipient individual‘s life. . .
Internet Link: http://www.effective-mind-control.com/cellular-memory-in-organ-transplants.html
“CELLULAR MEMORY IN ORGAN TRANSPLANTS – THE EVIDENCE
While proposing the presence of a cellular memory, Gary Schwartz, has documented the cases of 74 patients, 23 of whom were HEART transplant recipients. These patients are reported to have ACQUIRED SOME TRAITS OF THEIR DONORS. For Schwartz, the concept of a cellular memory applies to any organ, which has interconnected cells, including hearts, kidneys, liver and even muscles. These cases indicate transfers from donors to recipients of clear recollections of people, events and places, their likes and dislikes and behavioral tendencies …”
Arbitrarily deliberately introducing the . . . incredible confusion . . . of three DNA samples into one defenseless baby . . . in defiance of GOD’s holy and beautiful harmonious patterns for procreation . . . for multitudes of reasons . . . spiritual and practical . . . (including great concern as to whether harmony between parent(s) and child . . . and said child’s relatives and siblings . . . may be . . . IRREVOCABLY. . . profoundly disturbed . . . and even destroyed . . . by the intrusion of a third DNA strain) . . . brings to mind the below Scripture . . .
“For GOD is NOT the author of confusion, but of peace …” – I Corinthians 14:33
. . . all for Jesus+
The reason we have a rapidly evolving secular society is that currently a major portion of our citizens have been raised in homes without a mother and father who have or planned to be married to each other for life and were mostly educated in schools where God and prayer had been excluded from the curriculum. When family life where children were welcomed as a gift from God by two god fearing adult parents, one working and the other at home, and not seen as an accidental by-product of sheer physical passion there was a good chance for them to become responsible members of society. Unfortunately modern living, led by the uncontrolled lust in the hearts of mankind and liberalism’s always enticing boast of freeing mankind from the bonds of religious scruples, in the last century handed evil the lethal weapons to destroy families.
The beauty and wonder of the Conception of a child in the womb of its mother was chosen as a target at the very beginning of socialism and its liberal agenda to accomplish the “fundamental transformation of America” way before the current regime and their announced messiah appeared on the national scene. The cry from the desert of dome was that the world God had made for us was in grave danger of Over Population. We had to save the earth from being over run with new life? The pictures accompanying every deceitful article echoing that cry were not of cute toddlers in their mother’s arms or on happy playgrounds or in pleasant classrooms learning of the beauty of God’s good earth. No, we were shown starving skin and bone figures in poor countries of Africa and Asia where Christian missionaries were trying to bring the truth of the gospels to the people. Ironically this deceitful campaign gained support at a time when tens of millions of innocent humans all over the world had just been ritually slaughtered by godless dictators and imperial rulers before, during and after World War II.
Contraception in all its forms, as part of the selfish passion for freedom from individual responsibility, was hailed as a redeeming blessing for not only married couples who wished not to have the obligation of raising a family but also to any and all who desired to be romantically involved prior to or in lieu of marriage. The personal benefits and blessing of conjugal love which God had reserved for married couples to have families and procreate were transformed and disguised as simply human rights suddenly ordained and made available by the secular progressives to everyone without having to pledge eternal companionship or bare the obligations of parenthood. Giving those with a taste for such freedom, the media offered public cover by naming their cause a Sexual Revolution. Driven by the desire to avoid personal responsibility at any price¸ rejecting any mention of chastity, this was the harbinger of societal perversion as well as the precursor and foundation for what eventually became our own national plague, Abortion.
One might easily define the demise of American family life by its two most revealing concepts, contraception and abortion. One opposed the creative nature God granted to the union of a man and a woman joined in Holy Matrimony and the other sought to challenge the very involvement of God in the equation. Both have at the center of its premise the denial that man is the product of the goodness and abundance of God’s love and that man was not made in His image and likeness. Therefore, there is no such thing as procreation and God had no purposeful design for the ability of mankind to reproduce.
Liberalism, like Humanism, stops short of denying the existence of God least they lose the basis for the goodness of man which provides them some footing to espouse their false philosophy of life. This is the same as the satanic Temptation of Christ when he was asked to forsake his divine nature and simply be human and follow the commands of one who would provide him with all he would ever need. The lord of lies has hope; hope that we do not recognize him among those who have unknowingly followed him and wish to control us.
The world witnessed recently the liberal dominated democratic national convention purposely attempting to remove all mention of God from their platform to proudly but foolishly proclaim what could be called a doctrine of the cultural of death. However, they reasoned prior to the election was not good timing for exposing the under belly of their agenda and leaders hastily overruled the mobs there present shouting for its approval.
When in God’s name is the Body of Christ going to publicly admit we have many elitists in our fold as politicians, entertainers, educators, or media reporters who are giving aid and comfort to the evil enemies of our faith, identify them and officially notify them they can not be in communion with us and continue to cooperate in the erosion of our values and doctrines? Hopefully our new Pope Francis, with the fervent prayers of the faithful, can turn the tide of tyranny in the Church and if need be become a smaller but holier flock for him to shepherd.
Bill Sr.
A fine essay. If I may make just make one precision.
There is a strong bias today toward caring only about what is best for young, healthy adults with disposable incomes. Our elderly, our wounded vets, our disabled are being discarded like waste. Euthanasia is slowly expanding. Our society is chasing the Nazi nightmare but hiding it under euphemisms…
As an adoptive parent of a special needs child I was very moved by your post. Children have been commodified. How true, that rarely are the child’s rights considered, the right to live, the right to a mother and father, the right to brothers and sisters, only the wishes of adults. How much child psychology rested on the importance to a child of a stable family life and a caring mother and father. Not just Christians but the founders of modern psychiatric theory, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung would be shocked at current developments . . Unfortunately I think that this barrier will be crossed too. Elizabeth
When you take God out of the equation anything is possible.
I have two special needs grandchildren and they are a true joy to us and their parents. They are a true gift from God.
When we refuse to recognize God’s plan and go with a religion of “what makes me feel good” , you get what we have in society today.
The truth of God’s teaching and our Catechism need to be made clear from the pulpit. A lack of courageous teaching of the truths of our faith is painfully apparent. We are the Catholic Church not a political party or a government. Our truths have stood for a lot longer than any government or political party.