Home
Center for Biblical Theology and Eschatology
Index


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

www.TheBaptistTabernacle.com

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.


[ Top | Eschatology | Bible Studies | Classics | Articles | Other Articles | Sermons | Apologetics | F.A.Q. | Forum ]

Home