Thoughts on Genetic Engineering

Genetic Engineering Blind to True Human Nature

We experience a natural drive to improve ourselves and our world. Its highest expression lies in charitable love of our neighbors & faithful preparation for union with the Divine. Our human nature thrives when we develop a shared moral sensibility in our interaction with others and in our experience of joy in the beauty of God-given creation. Disabled persons are then properly valued as miraculous, unique treasures of our human community.

Removing some perceived disease, abnormality or deficit in an embryo would not guarantee that the altered person would be spared unpredictable suffering in his or her life. Suffering is not limited to persons who are ‘abnormal’ or less capable of achievement.

Relationships with parents could become distorted for those children aware of having been ‘manufactured’; the edited persons might lose the reassurance that comes from miraculously receiving & freely developing one’s unique, given identity. Medical ideology of control generates a mirage through which we can barely perceive the wondrous, irreplaceable, and divinely intended nature of an individual human.

Genetic engineering of unborn humans says much about parents and scientists who put their preferences for normality, abilities and competitive achievement above respect for the awesome miracle of human nature.

Christopher M. Reilly,
"Madness of Human Genetic Engineering,"
Human Life Review, Aug. 2019.