Kerby Anderson

Scientists recently announced they were able to produce a living baby mouse from two biological males. Researchers were able to harvest skin cells from the tails of two male mice and then convert them to pluripotent stem cells. As the Associated Press article concluded, “This raises the distant possibility of using the same technique for people.”

The announcement reminded me of something I put in one chapter in my book, Christian Ethics in Plain Language. Decades ago, scientists at Vanderbilt University used egg fusion from two female mice to produce a female mouse. That announcement attracted the attention of lesbian groups. If it had been perfected in humans, it would provide a means of taking an egg from one woman along with an egg from another woman that would produce a girl who was genetically related to each of the women who donated an egg.

You may wonder why you haven’t heard more about these attempts at homosexual reproduction. It turns out that it is easier to describe these reproductive scenarios than it is to perfect them and make them available to same-sex couples.

All of this is more science fiction than science fact. The procedure is extremely inefficient and may not be easily applied to humans. But we should also be aware of what has been called a technological imperative: if we can do it, we should do it.

Christians should ask fundamental questions about these artificial reproductive technologies. First, how do these procedures threaten the sanctity of human life? Second, will they adversely affect the moral integrity of the family? Are we ready to bring children into the world with no biological father or no biological mother? Are mothers (or fathers) incidental to the life of a child?

We need Christians to go into the field of bioethics to ask important questions and bring biblical answers.