Medicine: To Fool (or Not) with Mother Nature

“The issue is how far we play God, I how far we are going to treat mankind as we would animal husbandry.” So says Leo Abse, a British M.P. who has long felt that policymakers have not dealt seriously enough with the issues raised by developments like the test-tube baby, and plans to lead a parliamentary debate on the matter this week. But for philosophers and theologians, as well as scientists, the Old ham experiment sharpens some long standing moral and religious questions. Is in-vitro fertilization to be applauded as a humanizing technique, allowing some infertile couples the joy of procreation? Or is it dehumanizing, a step that is to be condemned because it puts the moment of creation outside the body into a mechanical environment?

To some thinkers, the Oldham experiment poses no problems. Says Rabbi Seymour Siegel, professor of ethics at Manhattan’s Jewish Theological Seminary: “The Browns were trying to obey the commandment to have children. When nature does not permit conception, it is desirable to try to outwit nature. The Talmud teaches that God desires man’s cooperation.”

For many others, in-vitro fertilization is fraught with moral dangers. British Geneticist Robert J. Berry, a consultant to a board set up by the Church of England to consider issues like the ones raised by the Brown baby, accepts the procedure for couples who want a child, but he is still troubled. “We’re on a slippery slope,” he warns. “Western society is built around the family; once you divorce sex from procreation, what happens to the family?”

For the Roman Catholic Church, which first came out against in-vitro fertilization in the 1950s, the Oldham experiment promised yet another round in Rome’s long fight against advances in procreation and birth control. Although the Vatican has yet to take official notice of the test-tube pregnancy, a top official quickly reiterated the church’s position that “interference with nature is not acceptable” in any form. For that reason the Papacy has condemned artificial insemination, even with the husband as donor. The church is also opposed to the use-of contraceptive devices for the same reason; the Browns’ motive is the opposite—to have a child. But that may not matter. Says the Rev. William B. Smith, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York: “It’s the contraception argument backward. Pius XII talked about not wanting to change the home into a laboratory. I call it switching the marital bed into a chemistry set.” Catholics and other Christians who believe that life begins at conception are also troubled by the fact that in test-tube fertilization, many fertilized eggs die.

Some skeptics doubt that enough embryo transplants have been done on primates and other mammals to justify trials on man and also wonder if the patients know enough about the risks to give “informed consent.” Protestant Theologian Paul Ramsey insists that the rights of the child-to-be should be considered. He argues that test-tube procreation is “immoral” because of the uncertainties involved: the parents’ right to have children is never so absolute as to justify such “induced risk” to the child. Ramsey sees a further risk in Britain’s birth watch: possible stigma or damage to the Brown child’s self-image because of all the notoriety.

The ethical questions raised by scientific advances in procreation can only become more urgent as new techniques are explored and developed. Robert Edwards, Steptoe’s partner in the Oldham experiment, has advocated test-tube selection of the offspring’s sex, though only to reduce such sex-linked diseases as hemophilia. Politician Abse fears that “we are moving to a time when an embryo purchaser could select in advance the color of the baby’s eyes and its probable IQ.”

As for Lesley Brown, she has less difficulty reconciling herself to such anxieties. “I realize that this is a scientific miracle,” she told the Daily Mail. “But in a way, science has made us turn to God. We are not religious people. But when we discovered that all was working well and I was pregnant, we just had to pray to God to give our thanks. It seemed right and natural.”