Gene Therapy and Cloning

[CollegeKid]

Please help me out guys-I’m having a rough time with some questions. For one:

I know I’ve heard news stories before about advances in gene therapy that are now allowing parents to choose the sex of their child. Isn’t God the Author of Life? How is it that we humans have the capability to do something like this?

I was wondering the same thing about cloning. I thought only God can create a human being (through the marital act), and I thought it goes without saying that He determines the sex of the person.

Also-is sex only an attribute of our bodies? Or is there a mark on the soul that also makes someone male or female?

 

[masterjedi747]

Isn’t God the Author of Life? How is it that we humans have the capability to do something like this?

As far as the how goes, it’s simply a matter of ensuring that the child ends up with the right set of male/female chromosones. Another answer to the how might be the fact that since our bodies are material organisms that develop according to the rules of physics and chemistry, if we can understand the process sufficiently then we have the potential of being able to manipulate and/or contol it to a certain degree. The fact that we can do it doesn’t make it moral, however.

I thought only God can create a human being (through the marital act)

God does have to infuse the body with a spiritual soul in order for it to become a person.

and I thought it goes without saying that He determines the sex of the person.

Under normal conditions, when the physical variables are left open to chance (in other words: under the guidance of Divine Providence), He does. It’s when we start manipulating the process ourselves that we effectively “push” God out of the situation.

is sex only an attribute of our bodies? Or is there a mark on the soul that also makes someone male or female?

It’s complicated, so I’ll let other people handle this one. But I know someone will bring up C.S. Lewis since he ends up talking about something like this in Out Of The Silent Planet.