Center for Biblical Theology and Eschatology
A Christian Perspective on Cloning
by Scott A. Leone
November 30, 2001 Pastor of The Baptist Tabernacle 1618 Waycross Highway, Jesup, GA 31545 (912) 427-3044 Pastor@TheBaptistTabernacle.com The subject
of cloning has been much in the news lately because of a company in
Massachusetts that was successful in creating the first cloning of a human
embryo. This has raised some
significant moral questions and concerns.
President Bush responded to the news by saying, “We should not as a
society grow life to destroy it. And that's exactly what's taking place.” What is the Christian perspective on cloning? Undoubtedly many view cloning as merely a
scientific endeavor to advance humankind by helping to cure disease. There is something noble about desiring to
cure disease, but at what cost? And
what moral authority does “science” have to clone human life? Does science need any moral authority? It is enough authority to say, “It’s out
there so let’s do it”? Or can we simply
be pragmatic about this and say, “If it works, do it”, or “If it can help cure
disease it’s right”? I believe that
this issue is not so simple. Many people do not realize the
fundamental limitations of science, and assume that science is the impartial
judge and arbiter of all truth. Many of
our society’s scientific elite are naturalists (i.e. reject God as the author
and Creator of life and believe instead that natural forces randomly brought
all things into being), and hence they present science as the only means of
determining truth. “If a scientist says
its OK, then it must be.” Now science
may be able to prove that the earth is round and not flat, but if you want to
argue that human life begins at birth or that a fetus or embryo is only a
“potential” human life, then science is not the final arbiter of truth. Usually in such cases one’s preconceived
philosophical bias determines how he “views” the scientific evidence. Christians believe that the Bible and the
“scientific evidence” clearly show that human life begins at conception. Science can only observe and make
predictions, deductions, or laws based on those observations. Science is therefore inherently
limited. Its authority is limited. Science cannot put the “ought” in the law “you
ought not commit murder” or “you ought not steal”. Unfortunately, when naturalists reject the existence and
authority of God in the world then they make man completely autonomous, and we
then put the “ought” in what we want.
Human freedom then becomes a means by which we can do anything. There are no bounds, or only the bounds that
we want. And, as society changes, the
bounds change. There are no absolutes
in a world where human freedom is autonomous.
So then to clone or not to clone, if man’s will is supreme, and if
science can do it, then why not? What
is to stop them? This all leads to moral chaos. And that is just what our culture is up
against. But let me attempt to explain
a Christian perspective on cloning. First of all the Christian believes
in “free will”, but that our freedom is defined as freedom within the will
of God. God’s will is greater than
our will. The devil was the one who
came to Eve and tempted her with absolute autonomy apart from God when he said
to her, “Ye shall be as gods”. Absolute autonomy is the devil’s lie. Two things bind our will: God’s revealed
will in the Bible, i.e. His Laws, and our sinful nature, which inclines us to
break God’s Laws (which is sin).
Therefore we must note that we are not free to do everything we
want to or have the ability to do.
There are places we simply must not go.
Gilbert Meilaender, in his book, Bioethics: A Primer for Christians,
writes, “The only freedom worth having, a freedom that does not finally
trivialize our choices [by allowing us to do everything], is a freedom that
acknowledges its limits and does not seek to be godlike. That freedom, a truly human freedom,
will acknowledge the duality of our nature [free but not entirely] and the
limits to which it gives rise.” Secondly, God has made men and women in His own image, and He has
instituted the covenant of marriage for the propagation of mankind. That is an extremely significant fact with
respect to cloning. Cloning usurps
God’s way of doing things. Meilaender
writes, “A child who is thus begotten [through the father and mother’s act of
human love], and not made [e.g. as through cloning], embodies the union of her
father and mother. They have not simply
reproduced themselves, nor are they merely a cause of which she is the
effect. Rather, the power of their
mutual love has given rise to another who, though different from them and equal
in dignity to them, manifests in her person the love that unites them.” (I know when I see my children I see in them
my love for my wife.) There is a
beauty, dignity, and the wisdom of God in the one flesh union between a husband
and wife. The fruit of that union is a
blessing from God (Psalm
127:3). Thirdly, there is an inordinate fixation today on immortality through
science instead of God. People think
that science, not God, will one day give us the perfect body free from pain,
disease, and even “sin”. But Christians
know that such a body will not come until God gives it at the
resurrection. And, in order to receive
that body there must first be in our heart a moral and spiritual
reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. I conclude that such biblical understanding calls into question not
only the concept of cloning, but also genetic engineering, or the use of third
party donor sperm or ovum, or surrogacy.
Again listen to the wisdom of Meilaender, “Lines of kinship are blurred
and confused [when other means of creating life are used]; the child begins to
resemble a product of our wills rather than the offspring of our passion; and
the presence of the child no longer testifies to and embodies the union of her
parents.” In our pursuit of scientific advancement
we end up demeaning humanity and not ennobling it when we yield to
practices that violate God’s revealed will, and we turn human life into a
commodity to be bought, sold, exchanged, discarded, or manipulated – we
cheapen human life. Human cloning is a place we simply should not go. It is another expression of the devil’s
temptation to be like God. And, even as
the devil’s words were ultimately bitter to Eve, then Adam, and then all of us,
so too cloning will leave us with a bitter taste. What lack of moral clarity does cloning give us? What arrogance is it in the face of
God? What consequences will there be
for the institution of marriage and the family? Just because we have the ability or technology to do something
does not mean we should do it. Morality
based on God’s revealed will in the Bible is just as valid a boundary for human
freedom as anything scientifically understood.
Science itself cannot dictate morality.
We need God’s Word. In this way
science and the Bible work together.
Oh, that Americans would once again embrace the legitimate role of the
Bible in our society as a moral guide!
The Bible is profoundly relevant and applicable to our times, and gives
us clear light concerning the error of human cloning.