ZIFT is the complete opposite of GIFT. This involves the egg and the sperm to fertilise outside the body. The fertilised egg is then inserted into the fallopian tube.
IVF is another alternative, where the woman’s eggs are collected with the man’s sperm in a dish at a laboratory. After fertilisation takes place, the fertilized egg is immediately incubated. Later on it would eventually have developed into a blast cyst of eight identical cells. Healthy blast cysts are inserted into the women’s womb, but no more then 3 should be inserted as this could consequent in attaining quadruplets or quintuplets.
PID is an option that is only used by people who have genetic diseases or disorders. In this process, the doctor only picks out healthy and unaffected embryos and inserted into the woman while the rest are discarded.
Explain the Christian attitudes and those of one other religion to those treatments
Most Christians believe that the treatments available for infertile couples are wrong. The Roman Catholic Church believes that the right to have and bring up a child is given only by God. Hence treatments, which are breaking the rules of God, are sins. The Roman Catholics believe that IVF is wrong because it involves fertilising several eggs some of which are thrown. Throwing away these eggs is seen as abortion and therefore wrong according to the Roman Catholics as they place high regards to the idea of the sanctity of life.
The sanctity of life teaches that life is a gift from God and so essentially belongs to God. There is an extract from the Surah 3:145 explaining this teaching; “Nor can a soul die except by God’s leave, the term being fixed as by writing.”
Masturbation is seen as a sin for Catholics and hence if a man were to be masturbating for artificial insemination and surrogacy it would still be viewed as a sin. Also Catholics believe that God intended procreation to be a part of the sex act and so all forms of embryo technology and solutions don’t include the sex act.
Other Christian churches allow IVF and AIH. These Christians believe that new technology and solutions that are made to provide infertile couples with the joy of children and so it is good. Also, as the egg and the sperm are from the actual going to be parents it is acceptable. This teaching is based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. They teach that as long as the technique involves both parents and no intrusion of any other person it is tolerable however still morally unacceptable.
“…the intrusion of a person other that the couple… are gravely immoral… Techniques involving only the married couple… are perhaps less reprehensible yet remain morally unacceptable.” – Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Explain why religious people may have problems with transplant surgery.
Religious people may have various reasons for having transplant surgery. Some Christians dislike the idea of any form of transplant surgery. One of the Christian teachings is that the body is created by God and so should not be interfered with. Interfering with the life and its ways is ignoring the sanctity of life. The sanctity of life is a view followed by almost all religions. As mentioned before this is a basic belief that teaches all life is a gift from God and so thus belongs to God.
Transplanting organs from the dead into the living is usurping the role of God, and no one has the right to act as God. Some Christians also believe that organs should not be paid for because the Bible states in many places that to exploit the poor is wrong. Hence paying for organs is disagreeing with the Bible.
Christians also agree with the non religious arguments against transplant surgery. Heart transplants can cause much dispute and anger as for the heart to be used as a transplant needs to be removed before the heart stops beating. In other words the person who is giving up their heart would still have to be alive to give it up for use.
Islam is another religion that has much strong opposition towards transplant surgery. There main argument is that the Shari’ah teaches that nothing should be removed from the body after death and thus the organs of dead Muslims should not be removed. To take a part from one body to be a replacement for another body is wrong. By doing this, the Qur’an says that it is acting like God which is the greatest sin of Islam. This sin is referred to as ‘shirk’.
Some Hindus are opposed to any form of transplant surgery. They share the same beliefs as Christians and Muslims, which is that transplant surgery is breaking the sanctity of life and usurps the position of God. Further reasons for why they are against it, is because they are firm believers of ‘ahimsa’, non-violence. Hindus regard another’s organs taken out for another as a violent and unjustifiable thing to do.
Hindus also believe that transplant surgery breaks their law of karma. They believe that transplant surgery is helping to cure someone who is meant to suffer because of the bad things they did in their previous or present life. By getting a transplant or an alteration, they are avoiding the punishment given by God which only makes it worse for them.
Some of the opposing Hindus may also have concerns regarding the poor. They believe that poor people might exploit themselves by selling their organs in order to receive some money to survive on for themselves or to provide for their family.
“Only God has the right to interfere with our genes”.
Genetic engineering is the “deliberate modification of the characters of an organism by the manipulation of genetic material” (OED). Research of this kind is normally carried out to find cures or prevention from any illness and disabilities to humans.
There are two basic views on this issue. One is that God is the only being that should be allowed to interfere with our genes. The other being that we can interfere with our genes without the permission of God since we are given free will for our own lives.
Many religious people such as some Christians and Muslims agree that God is the only person who should have the right to interfere with our genes because he was our creator and designer. If we tried to change our genes it usurps the role of God. For example if a student produces a piece of coursework, they are expected to alter it as their final piece. However, if another person takes this opportunity to edit the student’s coursework, the student does not deserve the grade he gets and the other person has tried taking the student’s position.
Along the same lines, Muslims and Christians also believe that God is the one that has created our genetic make-up and we are finalised at the moment of conception. Thus by altering us we are going against God’s will and right.
The people who oppose genetic engineering, of which are Christians have another argument of why genetic engineering should not be allowed. They believe that God has created Earth as a test and a preparation of heaven. By making Earth perfect, the whole point of heaven will no longer exist as heaven is perfect.
The Hindus that also oppose to genetic engineering believe that it is trying to break Karma. By breaking Karma, it breaks the natural law of order. God intended people to suffer depending on what they did bad during their past or present life. By curing the person who has done wrong, they will only be reborn into another body and have to suffer once again. They also follow the concept of ahimsa, non-violence and believe it is an act of violence to change an individual’s genetic make-up.
All these beliefs from different religions believe that genetic engineering is wrong. They all believe that genetic engineering is playing with God’s responsibilities and his position. Thus by doing this, we are also messing with things we don’t understand as it is believed that God is the one that created all of our genetic make-up. T
Genetic engineering is seen as dangerous because we as humans have not much information of the long-term consequences of it. Hence we may end up encountering some effects which are irreversible which is a big disadvantage of genetic engineering. Another disadvantage is that genetic engineering puts too much power in the hands of scientists who may become like Dr Frankenstein to produce people or beings which we would not understand, sometimes untested and is morally wrong. This is why overall; some people agree that only God has the right to interfere with our genes.
Other religious people believe that if God didn’t want us to be able to change our own genes, then he would have not allowed us to even create such a thing as genetic engineering or further more he wouldn’t give us free will. Religious people such as Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Jews all believe that everyone should do all they can to cure disease. For example, Jesus was a healer who encouraged Christians to try and cure disease if they could. The Qu’ran and hadith teach that Muslims should do all they can to cure disease also and so does the Tenakh and Talmud for the Jewish people.
Christianity teaches that all humans are stewards of our Earth. Being a steward means to take care of the Earth and improve human life if possible for the benefit of the next generation. It means to leave the Earth in a better place then it was found when you are born. God expects us to improve human-life as stewards of his creation. Genetic engineering is just another form of medicine which benefits the world and its inhabitants.