Wake Up, Look Up

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hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach

wrock and in today's episode we're

asking the question should we play God

this is prompted by an article I read

this week written by Kristen Brown in

Bloomberg news it was looking at

advancements in genetic testing

particularly related to IVF or invitro

fertilization rapidly science is making

the promise to aspiring parents that

genetic screening can let them know if a

particular future child is at higher

risk for a number of things we can

determine in advance if that child is

going to be male or female if they're

going to look certain ways cosmetic Al

or if they're going to have diseases or

physical limitations or disabilities as

a result parents are increasingly in the

driver's seat on decision making as to

what kind of child they want to have and

whether or not they want to take on the

burden of uh not just having but raising

and caring for a child who might be at

higher risk for a particular disease or

disability well as you might imagine uh

this is a causing a pretty sharp divide

in the medical and scientific community

over whether this advancement is good or

bad those who are for it are saying that

this will potentially alleviate a

lifetime of suffering for both the child

and the parents caring for a child with

severe disabilities or a dehabitation uh

illness is a difficult thing to do and

by giving parents advanced notice they

can decide for themselves whether they

want to do that or not the argument goes

that over time as well the human uh

genome will get stronger because we're

editing out various illnesses and

diseases as we select not to have kids

who bear those particular genes of

course the arguments against it are

manifold as well there are those who

argue it's commodifying life that were

reducing actual people down to the way

you would buy a car do you want leather

seats power windows St what kind of

stereo do you want a child with brown

hair brown eyes a boy or girl this

disease or not this genetic code or not

there are other people who argue that

it's dividing us again along

socioeconomic lines because this kind of

screening this kind of testing is

available right now at least only to the

wealthy so wealthier families have

healthier children while poor families

roll the dice uh also there are those

that argue that the science just isn't

there yet that when when you're being

told you can know these things with

certainty it's really a high likelihood

or a strong guess and parents are

actually choosing to terminate

pregnancies based on a more likely than

not outcome making life and death

decisions unlimited information well how

should we think about this as Christians

particularly knowing that IVF is on the

rise in our culture and in our churches

well let's just start with this the

sanctity of human life is rooted in the

idea that every person in the womb and

out of the womb Bears the image of God

and that image of God language is

important because it Roots our value not

in our physical or mental ability you

don't bear the image of God if you can

run the mile under a certain time if you

can jump high or if you can learn

algebra the image of God is what helps

every person retain their value

regardless of what they grow up to be or

what they grow up able to do it is just

the idea that every human being is

stamped with the impression of God when

we terminate pregnancies based on the

physical ability mental ability cosmetic

appearance we are saying something about

what makes people valuable and we're

saying something about God himself

Proverbs 3 says that we should lean on

the Lord trust God with all our heart

and our our understanding not not play

God but actually yield to God's desire

there there used to be this idea and one

we should reclaim that God gives us what

he wants us to have in order to shape Us

in fact some of the most amazing people

I know are parents who are raising

children with disabilities siblings of

kids who have disabilities or because it

nurtures something in them it creates in

them a certain kind of Beauty a certain

kind of neighbor love a certain kind of

Holiness learning to care for people

this is a slippery slope that will lead

to the erosion of compassion it will

lead to looking at a kid in a wheelchair

and wondering why his parents didn't

just terminate him it will lead to Value

statements designer kids and the way you

might think about designer purses it

will further a heart in a posture that

is saying to God not only am I not ryant

on you but move over I know how to do

your job better listen I'm not against

science I'm not against medicine the

Bible is not against progress but

progress is not progress if it takes us

away from God progress is not progress

if it comes in the form of rebellion

should we play God no no matter how many

times science and medicine offer to let

us hey thanks so much for watching this

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