Tampering With Creation

CEBU, Philippines - Why do you think God chose to have His only begotten Son born from the womb of a woman when He could easily have formed Jesus the Christ the way He formed Adam and Eve?

In the Old Testament, God formed the first man Adam from out of the dust. God created Eve from out of Adam’s ribs. God created man out of his own image. Only because of disobedience were Adam and Eve banished from the Garden of Eden and from then on the reproduction of humanity began with the physical union of man and woman and the conception of a human being from a woman’s womb.

Civilization and modernization have wreaked havoc on the natural reproductive abilities of man and woman. Certain lifestyles and eating habits have actually proven to have caused infertility. For instance, women who are into highly stressful jobs tend to have difficulty getting pregnant. Other causes of infertility are hormonal deficiencies, problems in the reproductive organs and some illnesses.

But a subspecialty within obstetrics and gynecology is making it possible to reverse infertility. Called reproductive endocrinology, the specialization handles complex medical issues involving imbalances in the reproductive system such as infertility.

For several years now, infertility can be reversed with medication, surgery, assisted reproduction and in-vitro-fertilization. Assisted reproduction refers to techniques that aid fertilization especially for women who have irreversible damage to their fallopian tubes or cervical mucous problems. In-Vitro-Fertilization is a method where a woman takes fertility drugs to stimulate the ovaries to produce more eggs. The physician then retrieves the eggs, mixes these eggs with a partner’s sperm in a petri-dish and fertilization takes place. The embryo is allowed to develop outside the womb for a few days before it is implanted into the lining of the woman’s uterus.

Taking things in one’s own hands.

Science and medicine inroads that allow doctors to create human beings outside of the womb or outside of sexual intercourse put a serious question as to whether doing so would be committing intransigence against God’s natural rules on human reproduction.

While Scripture is clear that it condemns abortion, it is unusually silent in the creation of human beings in an artificial way. God did tell the first man and woman to replenish the Earth. But He did not say man can replenish the Earth in methods that would allow man to create human beings.

While it is still by God’s grace that a fertilized sperm and egg can grow into a baby in a woman’s womb, but it does not resolve the contentious issue if creating human beings in reproduction assisted techniques is scriptural.

When Christian couples want to have children but cannot do so because of infertility problems, they would mostly like adopt reproductive endocrinology to have a baby. No one but God can explain the mystery and marvelous secrets that come with human reproduction and the sexual act. Thus adopting reproduction-assisted or fertilization-assisted means of conception treads uncertain Scriptural issues. But even then these issues are not anything new. In the Old Testament, Sara took things in her hands and adopted some “reproduction-assisted” method of having a baby when she gave her maid to Abraham.

In any case, the act of sex must be done in its purest form meaning, it is not tainted with lust or immorality. When Adam “knew” Eve in the Old Testament, it was born out of a monogamous relationship. The act of having a baby must be born out of marriage and a deep love relationship. In the end though, infertility can be overcome by trusting in God first to give the timing of having a baby and then science and medicine to make that timing manifest.