Framing Our Thinking About Biotechnology 2

Continuing reflection on the workshop titled Faith on the Edge: Christian Ethics in Fertility, Birth Control, and Genetic Engineering presented by Dr. Robert W. Weise.

Today: The human creature: fearfully and wonderfully made.

In the first post in this series, I made the point that we begin framing our thinking about biotechnology with making a clear distinction between Creator and creature. Today we will continue on the topic of framing our thinking by holding a proper understanding of the nature of the human creature.

First, Genesis records God's creation of the universe and all living plants and creatures, including humans:

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them. (Ge 1:27)

 

Creating humans in His own image, God sets humankind apart from all other creatures. We are indeed a special creation.

Second, humans bear the image of God (imago dei ) from conception as these passages testify:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations. (Jer. 1:5)

 

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there were none of them. (Ps 139:13-16)

 

Third, God becomes man in the incarnation. God identifies with his human creatures by being incarnated as a zygote, an embryo, a fetus, an infant, a child, an adolescent, a teenager, and an adult. That is, just as all human life begins at conception and develops through several stages, so did the incarnated Son of God.

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel. (Mt 1:23)

We have begun to frame our thinking about biotechnology. Before we can engage the difficult questions about the use of biotechnology we need to first establish the framework in which we will make our evaluation. So far, we have established:

1. The clear distinction between Creator and creature.
   
2. The human creature is made in the image of God which he or she bears from the moment of conception. This takes on even more importance in the incarnation of Christ.