Children Are Begotten, Not Crafted, by Their Parents

What if we could cure heart disease, cancer, and schizophrenia before they even started? That’s what the biotech company Orchid offers. The founder of Orchid sat for an interview with the New York Times in August.[1] While the interview focused on the technology and the diseases the company screens for, Noor Siddiqui, the founder, stated that she has 16 embryos frozen and plans to have four children, two boys and two girls. Even this seemingly innocent statement shows that genetic selection for disease can also mean genetic selection for sex and more. Which begs the question, where will the selection stop? What will the next generation look like, and how will they behave?

The better child has come. Jesus Christ, begotten of the Father, begotten not created to fix our greatest flaw and restore us to himself.

Power over Future Generations

Humans have always wanted the power and control that only belong to God. In the garden, the serpent tempts Eve by promising her that she will be like God. This is the same promise that gene-editing makes today. Parents can become like God, creating the children they want by selecting for long-term health, but can also be applied to intellect and athleticism.

The heart of this new technology may sound good: “Keep your children from facing disease.” If you know a parent who has faced a child going through cancer, you know that they would do anything to take that disease from their precious child. But this technology is not merely disease-preventative. You see, Orchid lets parents selects embryos for implantation in a mother’s womb and thus selects which ones do not. This technology promises the power to choose the child that enters the womb.

C. S. Lewis wrote all the way back in 1943 in The Abolition of Man, “All long-term exercises of power, especially in breeding, must mean the power of earlier generations over later ones.”[2] He knew the power and promise of technology and the hearts of men. In an effort to produce stronger, healthier children, I wonder if any of us would make the cut and be born.

What Kids Would You Choose?

If I am being honest, there is a part of me that is curious about what genetic combination of my wife and me would make an Olympic athlete (I concede that my slightly above-average athleticism would still only suit this hypothetical child for success in curling or fencing). But if I did not try to create a world-class athlete, could I at least help my child who needs corrective boots avoid the hassle and pain involved, and save my wallet from purchasing custom orthotics? What traits would you choose—looks, intelligence, kindness, charisma?

The dangerous part of this whole affair and the dark irony behind Orchid’s hopeful promise comes not in the traits that may be selected, but in the humans that are discarded. Orchid’s technology screens for genetic codes that reveal risk factors for numerous diseases and then the parents choose which of the embryos they made are implanted in the womb to continue development. The other embryos face a lesser future: maybe discarded or frozen with no thaw ever coming.

There is a dark irony in Siddiqui’s pursuit to remove these disease factors. If this had been done when Lewis warned of the dangers, Siddiqui would likely not be here today. She built the company to protect from the genetic onset of blindness that her mother suffered from. In her world, her mother would not have been implanted, and thus she would not be here to create a technology to save her family.

When I was born, I spent two weeks in the NICU. I would not have been selected if a healthy newborn was the criterion. I would love to fix my youngest son’s leg muscles so he does not need braces, but I would not discard his happy smile and helpful heart to save on a few medical bills. The promise of genetic editing offers a power that should give us pause. Every parent wants to protect their children. We rightly celebrate when the teenager gets their braces off; when the deaf child hears her mother’s voice for the first time; when the young boy sees his father’s face clearly; when the non-verbal Down Syndrome child says her first word; and when the child receives chemotherapy for the last time. But discarding that child before they have a chance to walk, hear, speak, see, or smile should never be called kind or good.

Where Does It End?

We do not know what will come with reproductive technology and gene editing. Designer offspring could easily lead us into the Brave New World dystopia that Aldous Huxley dreamt up. Yet, we know the desire for power and control remains in the human heart, and technology only expands its reach. Lewis understood it more than 80 years ago. He wrote:

I am only making clear what man’s conquest of nature really means and especially that final stage in the conquest, which, perhaps, is not far off. The final stage is come when man by eugenics, by pre-natal conditioning, and by education and propaganda based on a perfect applied psychology, has obtained full control over himself. Human nature will be the last part of nature to surrender to man.[3]

The end of eugenics will always be to create the perfect human, one Lewis says will be free from human nature. But what would be left? Can we actually change human nature? Instead, we should turn to the one who redeems our sinful hearts. We do not know the monsters we might create in search of solving the troubles and anxieties of our lives. So, we should enjoy the children we have begotten, not crafted. They may be flawed like their fathers, they may face sickness and disease like the generations before, but they are what we receive, and I, for one, would not give up any of my three children for a promise of a better child. The better child has come. Jesus Christ, begotten of the Father, begotten not created to fix our greatest flaw and restore us to himself. Let us rest in the sovereign hands of God and not the promises of technology.