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Issue 1 6 - April/May 2005
Playing God Live For Jesus Column by Deborah Anne Bunch In Minnesota, pigs are being born with human blood flowing in their veins. In Nevada, sheep are walking around with human livers and hearts working inside their bodies. In California, mice peer from their cages with human brain cells firing inside their tiny skulls. No, this isn’t a work of fiction; this isn’t an excerpt from “The Island of Doctor Moreau” by H.G. Wells – this is reality. These are the real creations of scientists around the globe. “Biologists call these hybrid animals chimeras, after the mythical Greek creature with a lion’s head, a goat’s body and a serpent’s tail. They are the products of experiments in which human stem cells were added to developing animal fetuses. Chimeras are allowing scientists to watch, for the first time, how beginning human cells and organs mature and interact — not in the cold isolation of laboratory dishes but inside the bodies of living creatures. Some are already revealing deep secrets of human biology and pointing the way toward new medical treatments,” said Rick Weiss of the Washington Post. “The most radical experiment, still not conducted, would be to inject human stem cells into an animal embryo and then transfer that chimeric embryo into an animal’s womb. Scientists suspect the multiplying human cells would spread throughout the fetus. “But few scientists are eager to do that experiment. [Thank God] “The risk, they say, is that some human cells will find their way to the developing reproductive organs, where they might grow into human sperm and human eggs. If two such chimeras - say, mice - were to reproduce; a human fetus might form, trapped in a mouse. “Not everyone agrees that this would be a terrible result. ‘What would be so dreadful?’ asked Ann McLaren, a renowned biologist. ‘After all,’ she said, ‘No human embryo could develop successfully in a mouse womb. It would simply die,’ she told the academy. ‘No harm done.’” Where is the ethics in this? Just because it is a scientifically created creature – for it is no longer the perfect, whole, original being that God created – doesn’t mean that we can kill it as though it were nothing. Yet scientists around the globe are doing just that, every day. Most of you who are reading this know that abortion is wrong. Ending a life is murder and we are commanded NOT to murder. “Thou shalt not kill.” – Exodus 20:13. What many of us overlook is that our advancement into genetic research, especially stem cell research, is bringing us closer and closer to the persuasion that ending a “modified being” is acceptable. It is not. The beginning of life is not when a fetus is created or a baby is born, but at fertilization. When we tamper with the genes of animals to mix them with other animals to “create” a super-animal we enter into a very controversial dilemma. In the December 2002 issue of National Geographic there was an article entitled, “Dreamweavers.” It concerned clothing and how scientists are coming up with man-made synthetics that are revolutionizing clothing and textiles. What disturbed me most was a section about spider-silk. It is well know that spider-silk is five times stronger than steel and if enough could be harvested, like we do from silkworms, clothing and other materials could be made that would be very strong and durable. Problem is, spiders cannot be “farmed” like silkworms because they are fiercely territorial and cannibalistic, so spider farming is financially impossible. Because of that, scientists came up with the “brilliant” idea, to put the spider’s silk protein gene (which only affects the mammary gland) into an-other animal. In this case they used a goat. The protein is then taken out of their milk, processed, and spun into as much spider silk as they want. But, even though the goat looks like a goat and acts like a goat, it has been altered; it is no longer a goat such as God created. Remember back a few years when there was a huge scandal about genetically modified corn being used in corn chips and taco shells? This corn was supposed to only be used for animal consumption because the effects of the corn in humans were not known. Yes, we’re doing this with plants, too. Today, you can visit the heartland of the United States and likely you’ll find genetically modified crops (or GMO’s) growing in the fields. While these crops may have a proved improvement in disease resistance, they can and do cross-breed with unmodified crops. And when this happens, the resulting plants cannot reproduce “pure” or even viable seed. This form of genetic research and modification is more acceptable because people aren’t as concerned with the ethics of a plant as they are with an animal or human being. But what happens when the GMO plant is fed to a cow, and in turn we eat the cow? Interesting to think about, right? Remember the piglets being born with human blood I mentioned at the beginning? Jeffery L. Platt, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, has been conducting a set of experiments where human-blood-forming stem cells are added to pig fetuses, thereby creating human-pig chimeras. These pigs not only have pig blood flowing through their bodies, but human blood as well! Two different blood cells flowing together, but not just two different cells: some of the cells themselves have merged, creating a hybrid blood cell. “‘It is important to have learned that human and pig cells can fuse,’ Platt said, because he and others have been considering transplanting modified pig organs into people and have been wondering if that might pose a risk of pig viruses getting into patient’s cells. ‘Now scientists know the risk is real,’ he said, ‘Because the viruses may gain access when the two cells fuse.’” - Rick Weiss of the Washington Post. So not only is there the issue of having human blood flowing in an animal’s body, or even that the two different blood cells can fuse, but a human could contract a virus from a pig! With all the dangers we have now with the Hanta virus from rodents, bird flu and West Nile from birds and other animals, we are adding to the mix by tearing down the barriers between animals and humans. How would you like to catch Hepatitis E, or the pig’s equivalent to AIDs (PRRS)? Irving Weissman, director of Stanford University’s Institute of Cancer/Stem Cell Biology and Medicine, said he is thinking about making chimeric mice whose brains are 100 percent human. He assured the skeptics that the mice would be carefully monitored as they developed and grew. “If the brains look as if they are taking on a distinctly human architecture — a development that could mean humanness — they could be killed,” he said. I don’t know about you, but that statement really worries me, and makes me angry. God gave each of his creations their own unique features, each perfect for their own purpose and abilities. But we as humans, with our knowledge are like little children, playing with our surroundings to see “what will happen.” “What if a mouse had a human brain? What if a pig had human blood?” What we are ending up doing is utterly cruel and heartless, as the “keepers of the earth.” “And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” – Genesis 1:26. God gave us possession of the earth – but that does not mean that we have the right to refashion God’s creation to our particular desires. “There are other ways to advance medicine and human health besides going out into the strange, brave new world of chimeric animals,” says Jeremy Rifkin a Biotechnology activist. He added to his statement by saying that sophisticated computer models can substitute for experimentation on live animals. Where do you think genetic modifications will lead us? Will we stick to mixing creations together? I think not. Even now scientists are informing the public about their plans to “create” a new life-form: a microbe or bacteria, most likely. Then there is the issue of cloning. Not only should we “cut and paste” animals, bacteria and plants, we should copy them. This is a serious ethical situation. We’ve all heard about “Dolly” the first “official” cloned sheep and the mice, the cats, etc.. Last year the world was shocked to hear that a human baby had been born, who was, reportedly, cloned. Hundreds of people who have the money, many of them celebrities, have signed up to be cloned, when the laws can be passed to do so. What’s going to happen when they do? I really wonder. Will a clone still have the human “spark” or even a spirit? Is it ethical, is it right? What gives us the right to “copy” something just because we can? Maybe you are reading this and thinking, “Not all genetic experimentation is bad…” I agree, to the average person who only hears the pros from the news and media, and not the cons, it does look that way. And yes, there have been many, many “miracles” brought to us by genetic research: Today, a barren couple can have children through egg and sperm donations. Test tube babies are commonplace. But, did you know that there are many more embryos created than one or two that are born so that they can choose the most viable embryos to provide the parents with one or two babies? The rest of the embryos (which are alive, but frozen) are either donated to another couple, used for experiments, or destroyed… If we consider the risks, the experiments and the testing that was done to bring us to this point, can we hold our heads up in pride? If you go by what the Bible says, then we really should hang them in shame. “Thou shalt not kill.” – Deuteronomy 5:17 Now we come to the so-called “designer genes.” Scientists claiming that, if allowed, they will be able to provide a “designer baby” to the parents. If they want, they can have a blue-eyed, blond-haired child, talented on the violin, with a 200 IQ, and no future health problems like diabetes, heart problems, or even hair loss. Having children to many people is no longer a God-given gift, but their decision, their choice. Abortion is a rampant evil in our country, and in most of the world. “The morning after” pill is a hot item for women, who “choose” not to have a baby because they don’t want one, but still want to have the advantages of a sexual relationship without the consequences. What many women don’t know is that “the pill” is basically an abortive measure; it doesn’t keep you from getting pregnant, it causes your body to abort any fertilized eggs, which is a baby, no matter how you want to look at it. Where will it stop, when will it end? What limits will we set on ourselves in our quest for understanding the secrets of life? Obviously giving mice our brain cells, and pigs our blood cells isn’t enough. What is the next step? Scientists are working to create another miracle, a miracle beyond anything they’ve succeeded with so far. Have any guesses? To a science fiction reader this won’t seem so outrageous, unless you realize the consequences. Ever heard of a humanzee? No, I didn’t make that up, it’s the name scientists have given to their next project - a part human and part chimpanzee chimera. Not only will it share the blood cells, organs, brain cells, and tissue of a human and a chimp, the scientists wish to achieve a being that can talk and think like a human as well. Animals that can talk? Chimpanzees with the ability to think and talk like us? As impressive and laudable as this sounds, I can not endorse it and say, “Go ahead! God gave us brains, we should use them!” Genetic researchers laud their work as a search to end sickness and health disorders. They say that their goal is to find a cure for AIDS, cancer, neurological disorders, and illnesses of all sorts. They want to fix our “bad” genes, like heart defects, nervous system disorders like Alzheimer’s, and so on. To find a way to repair conditions like paralysis, the effects of polio, and cerebral palsy; that, they say, is their goal. Herein lies the huge debate about Stem Cell Research. Many people think it’s an outstanding benefit to human-kind – a hope to end the problems, diseases, and conditions affecting us. Yet, there is a huge drawback to this. Most of the stem cells collected for this research and use come from human embryos, very few from adult donors or saved umbilical cords. The fact is that embryos, easily created in labs, are readily available and they have no choice in the matter; it’s all up to the scientist. They have no problems with harvesting the needed cells and then discarding the embryo. It’s murder, plain and simple. On television and in newspaper ads we are now seeing the beginning of a coming tide of genetic research available to the public. Just recently a commercial debuted featuring an umbilical cord blood saving association to protect your child’s future health with the blood and stem cells from the umbilical cord (which until now has always been thrown away). Christians are asking, “What should we think? Is this really a benefit, or is it morally unacceptable and wrong?” The answer is two-way in my opinion, but I’m leaning more to the side of its being unethical and wrong. The benefits of stem-cell research are enormous. But it is only right, when embryos are not involved or the stem-cells are not used in experiments as I’ve described. I personally don’t believe that this research and testing will be done without the use of embryos, and experimentation will always be done, so I am against it. Cloning is altogether wrong, in all cases. And it is immoral – for unknown to much of the public, clones (such as Dolly) have horrible genetic flaws such as abnormally large organs which fail, their cells age differently than they should (Dolly’s cells aged faster and her lifespan was very short compared to normal sheep). “Some of the common problems in clones were lung immaturity, low immunity, and abnormal heart development.” – Dr. Lawrence Smith from the University of Montreal. To begin with, cloning has a very high failure rate. “The success rate ranges from 0.1 percent to 3 percent, which means that for every 1000 tries, only one to 30 clones are made. Or you can look at it as 970 to 999 failures in 1000 tries.” – University of Utah. “99 per cent (of cloned embryos) will fail to come to term, and of the one percent that might live, a high percentage will die shortly after birth because of gene expression problems.” – Cindy Trian of the University of Connecticut. If cloning animals isn’t horrible enough, cloning humans is downright evil. “The number one problem [with cloning] is it violates a child’s right to be born in-utero. It subjects a child to the possibility of gruesome experimentation, and cloning is fraught with tremendous biological dangers. We know that horrible genetic errors can occur in mammals when they’re cloned, and it is wrong to subject a living being to that.” - Father Joseph Howard of the Human Life League If you were a parent and were able to choose, would you choose to have your child born with a defect or a disorder that would permanently affect them? Of course not! Then, why do we let this happen with cloning? Genetic tampering also is very wrong… God didn’t put us on earth to tamper with His work, but to care for it. Any tampering or modifying we do is a direct affront to God – acting as if we, with our limited knowledge, know better than the Almighty Creator who made all.
So what can we do about these issues? I hope by reading
this article you’ve reconsidered your thoughts on Genetic Research. If
you weren’t sure about it before, I hope I’ve been able to shed some
light on it for you. But, as impossible as it may seem, we can help make
a difference! First of all, study more about this subject, I’ve only
scratched the surface of what’s to be found. Share what you know with
your friends and family. Public unawareness is the biggest problem we
face right now, people only know what they’ve heard on the news, and
that’s a very biased view. Then support and most of all pray for our
leaders who are against this technology, and get involved with those who
are trying to make a difference.
Deborah Anne Bunch is 23 and the editor
of Not Ashamed Magazine. Besides writing for NAM she loves to draw,
read, and enjoy God’s beautiful creation! You can write to her at Not
Ashamed or |
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