February 3, 2008

Reproductive Ethics? Procreation Decisions

Yesterday I spoke at a women's conference on the subject of infertility and the role the church--especially women's ministries--must play in this area. Without someone willing to teach that technical assistance in the procreative process may risk the lives of embryos (people at the earliest stage of life) and violate the image of God as the creator, then even the church will remain ignorant in this area.

Also yesterday, the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity posted an article I wrote on outsourced pregnancy to India, Discount Babies, Discounting Dignity. As we continue to promote ourselves as a globalized society and as a global church, let's not forget about the women in 3rd world countries who are being exploited by "child labor," so to speak.

How we speak of the process of having children, whether as reproductive or procreative, may also speak to the influences that inform our decision making. Has having babies been reduced to the language of manufacturing? Is it about what we do to put the baby together, or is making babies about being image bearer? We create life because God created us to create similarly to him.

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