Posted on 10/27/2005 7:20:09 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
HOUSTON, October 27, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An experiment has been underway for a month in a Houston Texas where parents are permitted to ask scientists for a child with the gender of their choice. The procedure involves preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) which is able to detect the sex of embryos created by in vitro fertilization (IVF) prior to their implantation in their mothers' wombs.
While sex selection via PGD has been allowed in some cases where sex-linked diseases are concerned, the clinical trial is seeking to gage the impact of sex selection at the whim of the parents. According to the journal Nature, the researchers, led by Sandra Carlson of Baylor College of Medicine, will be studying the long term health effect to the children born after PGD and also the social impact on the families.
The fundamental ethical problems behind PGD lie in its origin of IVF which creates children outside of the loving union of a man and a woman. Moreover, the lives of the embryonic children conceived by the IVF procedure are under severe threat since the latest statistics have revealed that over 85% of embryos transferred in the procedure die in the process.
However, with those arguments ignored, and IVF accepted as a moral procedure in most of the world, researchers are left looking at PGD as perhaps problematic since it may cause sex discrimination as is the case in China and India. Both countries have seen a discrepancy in the ratio of boys and girls born since one-child policies and discrimination against female children have resulted in abortion being used to eliminate female babies in utero.
PGD sex selection is banned in Canada, Britain and several other countries for that reason. However the researchers are suggesting sex selection may be ethical for 'family balancing'. The researchers have said they will only accept couples into the trial who have a child and want another child of the opposite sex.
PGD is already routinely used to screen out embryos with genetic defects. Thus those embryonic children with disabilities are disposed of (read killed) prior to being given a chance to be born, a fact which has been of serious concern to groups advocating for the disabled.
I may be a "bossy Pharisee," but that doesn't make me wrong. I understand the heart of Jesus Christ, the man who threw the money-changers out of the temple; the man who said the first and most important commandment was to Love God with your whole Mind, Heart and Soul.
People who do not take the time to understand, acknowledge and hate evil, for whatever reason, are choosing to ignore the heart of each person's responsibility for his own soul. Christ died for us. His grace freed us; but anyone can choose to reject His sacrifice. That's part of the "glamour" of IVF. It's the way evil works.
Truth hurts. I have as much an obligation to point out the sin of the sinner as I do to proclaim the Kingship of Christ. So does every Christian.
You've confused pointing out difficiencies with name calling.
Christians are here to share the love of Christ, not judge the world. The sinful world isn't your domain, as Paul said, what do I have in judging the world? That's God's job. If you followed your Bible, you'd not be casting judgment on unbelievers. You're the judge of no one. Leave it that way...
". . . this statement is outrageously ignorant and offensive. . ."
We all judge, including you.
Physician, heal thyself.
Whatever. Leave people to be accountable for themselves, and no, gender selection is not keeping anyone from Christ's love. You're one of those types that wants to tell everyone what to do, but I'm sure usually no one listens...
There is no other "more general" message. God does not send "messages" through the weather though certainly certain pagan religions believe that and do, in fact, have Gods who control the weather. But that is not a Christian belief.
Someone should tell Noah.
God did tell Noah, WITHOUT the weather. Attributing natural disasters to God's judgment is a bit of a hasty presumption, spiritually speaking. Read John 9 to see if sin is necessarily the cause of bad things in people's lives. It isn't.
And there were no righteous on the Gulf Coast or in New Orleans whom God would have warned?
Silly nonsense.
The only strawman arugements are coming from you.
Your arguements are based on emotion. I can see by your insults you are not interested in a discussion.
From one Christian to another.. you surely aren't in a position to judge me.
Yes I was talking about life within the first few days.. not weeks.. and not months.
Simple.. using biology.
I never presented an argument. I find it impossible to discuss anything with you. The reason doesn't matter. End of conversation.
Do you know what an arguement is?
So you dehumanize based upon Biology? Care to explain that absurdity, christian?
Because killing life isn't what we are talking about. If you worried about killing life you wouldn't step on an ant.. nor would you masterbate.
However what we are talking about is whether or not we are committing murder the way God sees it.
And I fail to understand how you substantiate your claim that you are committing murder no matter the amount of life you take.
Whether it be diving cells or near full term baby. It's all life.. the question is where do you draw the line? I don't see IVF as murder... you do. The point I'm making is that it's all a difference of opinion. Neither of us can back the claim of what is or what is not murder since it is never stated in the bible regarding this topic.
What do you think they do with the embryos of the wrong sex?
Your effort to dehumanize embryo-aged humans by equating them with gametes cells (sperm or ova) is telling of your perspective, so I doubt you would even consider the fact that the Bible commands not to kill the innocent, nor would you even consider the Biological facts which don't support your skewed notion of magical transformation from non-human embryo to human.
I wonder, did you know that the embryo--he or she-- differentiates his or her cells to build his or her first organ for survival beginning even prior to implantation?
If you cannot understand the difference in organ and organism (as in gamete as opposed to embryo) there is no reasonable grounds for further discussion with you. Thank you for your replies heretofore.
Donation to infertile couples is what all the people I know do with the unused embryos
Get off your high horse
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