By Anthony McCarthy, Catholic Herald. (photo: Guy Basabose/Unsplash)
Earlier this week, the British media breathlessly welcomed an exciting breakthrough. According to the Sky News headline, making babies from the DNA of three people – a number of children have now been born in this way – prevents “devastating” diseases. The birth of these children “is a major advance for the technique, called mitochondrial donation therapy, designed to prevent a life-limiting, often fatal illness”.
The headline does not, of course, tell us what the technique involves. The news segments I saw contained interviews with the pioneering scientists in Newcastle, as well as a professor who fully supports the practice. At no point was an opinion sought from anyone who expressed the slightest ethical concern.
Before examining the technique, let us note the way in which “advances” in reproductive technology are typically presented. Practices which once caused outrage, or even just unease, are now typically presented in glowingly positive terms. If you don’t believe me, look up the initial reactions to artificial insemination and IVF – reactions which were shared by many, religious and non-religious alike. Pause and reticence now quickly give way to contentment and an open embrace of “progress”, with a simultaneous impatience for ethical reflection, if indeed this is flagged at all.
The cautionary voice is now not even given airtime, and if one hears from a “bioethicist”, it is likely to be one vocal in dismantling any sense that traditional wisdom is anything other than obtuse obscurantism. With such a relentlessly progressivist view, questions which are very far from settled in our culture – including the status of the human embryo, the meaning of sex and procreation, and the nature and responsibilities of parenthood – are not even raised when “good news” stories break.