Genetics and Christian kindness

I have been taking part in a program where teenagers get to learn about the government by taking part in it. For a couple days, in fact, our program will get to "run" the state capital. We use parliamentary procedure, write bills, debate bills, etc. Since it is my first year, I decided not to go to the capital, but I did go to the mock Legislation which is on a smaller scale. My time in this program has nearly come to an end, and I was looking through the bill book and reminiscing. The bills that we write are very serious, and therefore the discussion ends up being serious too. Most of the bills had a pretty clear-cut majority, but there was one in particular that upset the pattern.

Before this bill even came to the floor, there was excitement in the air, because the author had just ammended it only five minutes before. And that ammendment changed the purpose and fate of this bill. Because of it, the debate was very diverse, passionate, exciting, and the chairman finally had to stop it because it was taking so long. The bill barely passed, but all seemed ended when the youth governor vetoed it. Suddenly everyone was up in arms. Those who voted for it prepared their arguments hoping that it would be reconsidered, and those who voted against it also did so, hoping to bring it down with the governor's approval. It failed by only two votes when reconsidered, after another very long and passionate debate.

What was this bill about, that provoked such a reaction among teenagers? Could it be lowering the voting age? Making community service mandatory? No, nothing so easy.

The bill was banning genetic engineering. It originally banned all engineering except that trying to cure genetic diseases. But the author of the bill ammended it to ban all genetic engineering, and this is what caused the uproar.

There were many arguments against this bill. Who would want people who suffer from genetic diseases to be forever without a cure? Wouldn't you want to help them? Why not? What if genetic engineering could cure cancer? Surely it's cruel to deny people the privilege to live normal happy lives! Of course, we don't want people messing around with genes to make "perfect" children while in the womb, but what's wrong with making the babies healthy?

That is a lovely, kind, and gentle thought, and outwardly there doesn't seem anything wrong with it. But to a Christian and moral society, genetic engineering has dangerous premises.

First of all, the unstated assumption that humans must be perfect to live "normal, happy" lives. Are handicapped people unhappy? A family that we know has a daughter who is mentally handicapped, but she is perfectly happy and cheerful, blissfully unaware that she is "missing" something. How can you miss what you do not know of? Why do these "normal" people feel that they must "fix" them, instead of loving them for who they are.

To Christians, handicapped people should be considered no less God's handiwork than any other person. They should be loved and cared for, not treated as though they are "imperfect" and must be fixed. As if any of us is perfect! How cold and unfeeling that sentiment is! People with genetic diseases were created by God just like every other person in the world, and should be viewed as God's wonderful handiwork, made in his image, rather than a misfit who cannot be "normal". If we are not to have anyone who was not "normal", than why do we not kill all deaf people, elderly people, small children, everyone? Perhaps this is acceptable in today's society, but it should never be in a Christian one. As David so aptly said:

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139: 13-14

(There is, of course, debate on the reason for handicaps and genetic diseases. I believe it is because of sin; that our world once polluted by sin, never can be perfect again.)

The second dangerous part of allowing genetic engineering is the definition of disease. We are none of us perfect, and while now, genetic diseases may seem worthy to be cured, what happens when other things are considered diseases? Stuttering, perhaps, or problems with reading? Or even Christianity? If people are believing that homosexuality is a genetic preference, when will Christians be treated as genetically inferior? Yes, at the moment this is drastic, and such treatment would be arrogant on the part of doctors. But are not all humans arrogant? At the moment, doctors believe that people with genetic diseases are genetically inferior, though they may not say it in so many words. Who are they to judge? Did they create DNA?

What is even more ironic and sad, is that the same people who think that some people's genes are diseased (i.e. inferior, needing to be fixed), are those who call for diversity. Diversity of what, if not genes? Yet it was the people who considered people with black skin genetically "inferior" who first created the problems of racism.

Adolph Hitler, when he tried to annihilate the Jewish nation, was intending to create an Aryan society, because he believed them genetically superior. It was his arrogance that caused the deaths of millions of innocent people. And what is genetic engineering headed toward, but a set of people who decides what is allowable, and what is not, in your genes? At the moment, it may not seem very dangerous, but our society is already so corrupted, that it does not seem long before even such atrocities as euthanasia become acceptable. Genetic engineering is a step onto a slippery slope.