| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Sound of Trumpet" |
| Date: |
02 Jun 2006 11:26:56 AM |
| Object: |
Eugenics Alive And Well: Brave New Babymaking |
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1641721/posts
Brave New Babymaking: The Search for Sperm Donor 401
Breakpoint with Chuck Colson ^ | 5/31/2006 | Chuck Colson
Posted on 06/01/2006 6:55:41 AM PDT by Mr. Silverback
Note: This commentary may not be suitable for young children. Please
use parental discretion.
Leann Mischel, a Pennsylvania college professor, was ready to have a
second child. And she wanted the new baby to have the same father her
son did. The problem was that Mischel had no idea who he was: The
father of her son was "Donor 401" at a sperm bank. And the bank had
sold out of Donor 401's genetic material.
But Mischel was in luck. As the Washington Post put it, Carla Schouten,
another sperm-bank mother from San Jose, had "the gift of a lifetime
for Mischel"-"an extra vial of the father's sperm chilling in
her doctor's refrigerator." She gave it to Mischel, who used it to
father her second child.
This is a chilling example of the Brave New World of babymaking-one
that puts human reproduction into the world of commerce.
Increasingly, men and women are buying and selling eggs and sperm;
other women rent out their wombs for a fee. Egg donors with Ivy League
educations and sperm donors with doctoral degrees can charge far more
for their products. You have to wonder: How long will it be before the
most popular "donor fathers" and "egg mothers" decide to cut
out the middleman and sell their products on Ebay? And then imagine the
child of that transaction-one who finds out that Dad sold his genetic
material to a total stranger because she was the highest bidder.
And what about the grandparents? How sad that the parents of men who
sell their sperm may have dozens of grandchildren they will never meet.
And what if grandparents decide to locate these genetic grandchildren?
There's also the eugenics element. People who buy genetic products
want the best that money can buy. For example, the man who fathered the
babies of Leann Mischel and Carla Schouten, and of nine other women, is
6-foot-4, good at sports, has a master's degree, and is of German
descent. It all sounds a bit like the plot of a creepy novel-one that
involves neo-Nazis trying to spread the seeds of a new "Master
Race."
What we're witnessing is the triumph of genetic reductionism, which
treats people as little more than the product of their DNA. There is a
growing group of scientists, like Steven Pinker at MIT, who promote an
alien worldview called evolutionary psychology: that our genes actually
program us. In this view, the human body is not a gift from God but a
purely physical object, a commodity bought and sold-or cut up for
parts, as with embryonic stem-cell research.
But the Bible teaches that humans-far from being mere collections of
DNA or reproductive machines-are made in the image of God and that we
find our ultimate identity and worth in reflecting our Creator.
Some European countries have banned donor insemination of single women
and the anonymous donation of sperm and eggs. And we ought to be doing
exactly the same thing here.
This broadcast brings to a close our two-week series about the "War
on the Weak." You need to explain to your neighbors what is at stake
in the clash between the biblical worldview and many of the alien
worldviews we have been discussing during this series. As is so clear
from today's subject, genetic reductionism, what is at stake here is
nothing less than the question of what it means to be human.
This is part ten of ten in the "War on the Weak" series.
.
|
|
| User: "Lars Eighner" |
|
| Title: Re: Eugenics Alive And Well: Brave New Babymaking |
02 Jun 2006 05:04:44 PM |
|
|
In our last episode,
<1149265615.304554.255910@c74g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>, the lovely and
talented Sound of Trumpet broadcast on alt.atheism:
Leann Mischel, a Pennsylvania college professor, was ready to have a
second child. And she wanted the new baby to have the same father her
son did. The problem was that Mischel had no idea who he was: The
father of her son was "Donor 401" at a sperm bank. And the bank had
sold out of Donor 401's genetic material.
Once you've done 401,
No other is so much fun!
--
Rev. Lars Eighner, ULC http://www.larseighner.com/
The Mint Jelly of GodŽ -- The World's Best Atheist -- Unholier Than Thou
First Church of Electro-Baptism ***Atheist #1965*** One Short Circuit to Jesus
"I thank heaven for a man like Adolf Hitler" --Frank Buchman, U.S. evangelist
.
|
|
|
|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: Eugenics Alive And Well: Brave New Babymaking |
04 Jun 2006 01:45:18 AM |
|
|
Since none of this touched on any aspects of Judaism,
we can cut scj from any furture responses to this thread.
Susan
.
|
|
|
|
| User: "Josh Miles" |
|
| Title: Re: Eugenics Alive And Well: Brave New Babymaking |
03 Jun 2006 12:31:18 PM |
|
|
Sound of Trumpet wrote:
There's also the eugenics element. People who buy genetic products
want the best that money can buy. For example, the man who fathered the
babies of Leann Mischel and Carla Schouten, and of nine other women, is
6-foot-4, good at sports, has a master's degree, and is of German
descent. It all sounds a bit like the plot of a creepy novel-one that
involves neo-Nazis trying to spread the seeds of a new "Master
Race."
Absolutely ridiculous. People who decide to have children the
traditional way are usually pretty selective about who they choose to
start their families with--and it's been that way for thousands of
years. This is no different from the process of looking for a desirable
donor for artificial insemination.
.
|
|
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
