Morality: January 2006 Archives

English scientists plan to combine human DNA with rabbit eggs to produce part-human, part-rabbit embryos that would produce stem cells useful for research.

Yowzers. How many gross ethical violations can you commit in one act?

They have no plans to bring the embryos to term. Frankly I'm not sure if that's good news or bad news. Having and actual chimera would be frightening, but, on the other hand, it's at least partially human, so would it be right to effectively abort it? This gets back into those thorny questions, what confers human personhood: Is it DNA? It would seem to be. How much human DNA does it take to confer human personhood? 100%? 50%? 1%? Certainly it's easy to argue that if you introduce one human gene into an animal, it doesn't make it human. On the other hand, if you introduce one animal gene into a human, it doesn't make him non-human. (I almost said "it".) Perhaps a better measure would be rationality. If the creature and reason and make moral judgments like a human, he's human. However this is a much more complicated test; it means, for example, that we can't determine if these rabbit-human embryos are persons, though we can make a morally certain guess.

My brain hurts.

(Thanks again to Matt K.)

I discovered an excellent talk on same-sex attraction given by a faithful Catholic with SSA. It combines elements of his testimony with an explanation of the Church's view of human sexuality. It is well worth a read. Here is an excerpt I want to share with you:

Is the Church too obsessed with sex? I often hear this complaint, and I even have been known to utter it myself. But before we rush to condemn the Church for “obsession,” I suggest the following experiment. Tomorrow night is Saturday night. Flip your television to the channel with the highest ratings. Count how many times sex appeal is used, whether in commercials or in the programming. Then, on Sunday morning, go to Mass, and count how many times the priest mentions sex in his homily. Compare.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But no one is entitled to their own facts. And the fact is that our culture is in no position to accuse the Church of being obsessed with sex.

(Thanks to Alex Pruss)