Can’t discard them as embryos, abort them as fetuses, or cast them out? Try hormone patches.
Posted by Marcy Darnovsky March 16, 2007
Biopolitical Times
The Associated Press reported yesterday that a leading evangelical would support hormonal "treatments" for fetuses if genetic tests that can identify them as predisposed to be gay are developed. In a March 2 blog post, the Reverend R. Albert Mohler, Jr. concluded, "If such knowledge should ever be discovered, we should embrace it and use it for the greater good of humanity and for the greater glory of God."
His remarks set both red and blue bloggers abuzz, with charges of "eugenics" and "designer babies" flying.
Mohler's stance is carefully consistent with his theological commitments. He opposes abortion. He calls pre-implantation genetic diagnosis "one of the greatest threats to human dignity in our times." He affirms "the basic sinfulness of all homosexual behavior," while simultaneously arguing emphatically that "all persons-whether identified as heterosexual, homosexual, lesbian, transsexual, transgendered, bisexual, or whatever-are equally made in the image of God."
Unfortunately, Mohler's desire to "do something about" embryos identified as gay is not confined to religious conservatives. For a proposal from the liberal end of the political spectrum, see bioethicist Edgar Dahl's 2003 article in Human Reproduction, which argues that "parents should be permitted to use PGD to choose the sexual orientation of their children."
His remarks set both red and blue bloggers abuzz, with charges of "eugenics" and "designer babies" flying.
Mohler's stance is carefully consistent with his theological commitments. He opposes abortion. He calls pre-implantation genetic diagnosis "one of the greatest threats to human dignity in our times." He affirms "the basic sinfulness of all homosexual behavior," while simultaneously arguing emphatically that "all persons-whether identified as heterosexual, homosexual, lesbian, transsexual, transgendered, bisexual, or whatever-are equally made in the image of God."
Unfortunately, Mohler's desire to "do something about" embryos identified as gay is not confined to religious conservatives. For a proposal from the liberal end of the political spectrum, see bioethicist Edgar Dahl's 2003 article in Human Reproduction, which argues that "parents should be permitted to use PGD to choose the sexual orientation of their children."
