I believe life is a precious gift from God. As a college student I watched a film loop that showed the fertilization of an animal’s egg by a sperm. It was amazing to me to watch everything that happened as a new life began. That same class also informed me about significant improvements in reproductive technologies and the ethical challenges that were being raised by those technologies.
I am neither a reproductive scientist nor an ethicist. I am certain that I have much to learn in both areas. Yet, after reading the article linked below from the New York Times magazine and the link critique I believe many reproductive doctors and ethicists may also have much to learn. The article discussed the subject of reducing a double pregnancy to a singleton. Typing those words bothers me a great deal. The process is a kind of selective abortion, in which a woman chooses to end the life of one of her two babies. The article offers a type of emotional rationale for such a procedure, yet at the same time, the second paragraph quotes one of these women as viewing the procedure as allowing the couple to exercise control. I find that incredibly arrogant and demeaning to the life of the child.
There was more to the article that bothered me. A physician, who previously published an article against this procedure on ethical principles, is now doing the procedure. In explaining why, he is quoted as saying, “Ethics evolve with technology.” Those words make my stomach churn. Do right and wrong change because I have a better developed tool? Does technology really inform our ethics?
I do understand that technological developments challenge our ethics and force us to think about issues that we have never considered. But that is very different from suggesting that ethics change simply because technology allows us to do something we previously could not.
I am concerned and even convicted that our desire for control and our dream to have certain and comfortable futures can lead us to change our ethics. Instead of life being precious, it is something to be manipulated. Instead of a child being treated with dignity, a child is manipulated according to our selfish whims.
Sadly the article reminds us that we live in a culture that is eager and open to wander away from God and God’s values. We need to repent and return to ethics informed by God’s truth and not our technology or our transitory desires.
New York Times Magazine Article - The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy
Albert Mohler's Commentary on The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy Article
Here is an article from Slate magazine that raises issues about the ethics of these, in Slate's words, half abortions. I would not say that I regularly agree with Slate, but I think this article is helpful.
Half Aborted article from Slate
