The mega-ethical question of who and what is a human being is brought to one’s mind with increasing frequency by the accelerating advances in scientific technology.
As human beings increasingly apply extraordinary advances in scientific research to remedy human impairments, the inevitable questions of how such advances could be applied to enhance “normal” human functioning always arise.
Scientists are increasingly pushing back the frontiers of what may be done to ameliorate human maladies from generic disorders in the womb or postpartum.
Who among us would not applaud and support efforts to cure babies from debilitating, heartbreaking, life-debilitating genetic disorders, either in the womb or postpartum?
Unfortunately, human nature being what it has revealed itself to be, such marvelous scientific expertise will inevitably be used to seek to “enhance” certain human traits through genetic engineering. Some humans will assume the “desirability” or the superiority of certain human traits over others and will seek to engineer these more “desirable” traits through genetic engineering and even post-birth alterations when technically possible. The inevitable problem is, and will be, that our human technical skill will always outpace our wisdom. Also, we are not God, and thus we do not have perfect knowledge.
Consequently, we cannot know all the consequences of our actions. Of course, it is easy to support genetic engineering to correct dire dysfunction. The problems arise when we start engineering for “improvements.” As human beings, with limited knowledge and perspective, we cannot know all we are doing because, unlike God, we are not omniscient. Thus, we make mistakes.
Click Here to Read More (Originally Published at The Christian Post)
