More on the dehumanization front. . .

A Japanese biologist, Katsuhiko Hayashi, believes that it will be possible to make human eggs from skin cells within a decade.  He and his team have already turned skin cells from male mice into mouse eggs and used them to breed baby mice. Matt Krisiloff is chief executive officer of Conception Biosciences and his company has dozens of scientists working in a Berkeley, CA (where else?) lab trying to make eggs without ovaries. Ostensibly such a technique could allow women to have biological children later in life -- long after their normal span of fertility.  It is probably no coincidence that Krisiloff is gay and that the same technology would enable male couples to have biological children without anyone else’s genes.  

Reproductive technology is no longer in its infancy and has already reshaped the way families are made. Across the world, eggs and sperm have been flash frozen to be taken out of the freezer like one might thaw out a roast with conception in or outside the womb.  The DNA from three people (perhaps more) has already been incorporated. In vitro fertilization, or IVF, (taking mature eggs from ovaries, fertilizing them in a lab and implanting the embryo in a uterus) already accounts for 2% of births in the U.S alone.  The birds and the bees have certainly changed.  It is more true that a stork brings a baby than it used to be.  The magic of the technology has made the old way of conception a relic -- especially for the same sex couples and those who want children without a spouse.

Children have become products or commodities, things manufactured and produced to order without any of the mess or mystery of the natural way.  Genetics have been harnessed to provide the children we want instead of the children we might end up with.  The day is coming when we might shop for a baby the way we shop online.  Is anybody worried about what this does to our conception of life?  Does anybody stay awake at night thinking about what this does to the whole idea of a child?  Will there be outlet stores for to sell the factory seconds or returned goods to those on limited budgets?  Is this simply sick humor or could it be real someday soon?  Could we even stop it if we wanted to or is it already too late?  The reality is that while the technology may be Western, China will market it and one day it will end up at a dollar store near you.  By that time, the uniqueness and mystery hidden in the human life will be gone forever.  God help us!