Smart Medicine or Playing God?

Morning Health - [View as a web page]( [Morning Health - Healthy, Wealthy and Wise](#) --------------------------------------------------------------- [Smart Medicine or Playing God?]( [by Morning Health Team]( When scientists began cloning animals, there was a plethora of questions about the ethics of cloning humans. The main issue surrounding the cloning of humans was the number of embryos that were destroyed or died early in the process. To many conservative Christians, including myself, we believe that life begins at conception (fertilization), so an embryo is a human life. Destroying an embryo for any reason is murder, which is why most Christians are against abortion and contraceptives that kill a fertilized egg like the day-after pill. I recall several discussions between individuals on both sides of the issue and it all boiled down to whether cloning humans was smart medicine or playing God. That question is being asked again and about a new announcement, but the situation is different, no embryos should be destroyed. The new issue involves editing defective DNA in a human embryo. There are thousands of mutations that have accumulated in our DNA over our many years of existence. Most of these mutations make little to no difference, perhaps only changing the shape of an ear lobe, color of your eyes, hair color and texture, things like this. Some can be quite serious. One source says there are around 6,000 known genetic disorders. Most of these are hereditary, meaning they have passed on from parents to children, and some are non-hereditary, meaning they are not passed on from one generation to the next, but occur during embryonic development. My oldest daughter has a nonhereditary genetic disorder known as McCune Albright Syndrome. It's a rare genetic mutation that occurs during the early stages of embryonic development, but no one knows what causes it nor is there any cure. As for being rare, it only occurs in 1 of every 500,000 to 1,000,000 people. Figuring the entire US population is around 325,500,000, that means there are only about 326 to 651 cases of McCune Albright Syndrome in the entire country. As for hereditary gene mutation disorders, some of the more well-known include: breast cancer; autism; Chrohn's Disease; colon cancer; cystic fibrosis; Down syndrome; Gaucher Disease, hemophilia, Marfan syndrome (many believe Abraham Lincoln may have had Marfan syndrome); progeria; prostate cancer; sickle cell disease, Tay-Sachs; skin cancer and more. [More...]( Related Articles: [Vulvar Cancer Risks, Symptoms and More]( [Homemade Veggie Burger Recipes You Need Now!]( This article presented by [MorningHealth.com]( [MorningHealth.com] Please note: We sent this e-mail to {EMAIL} This email is never sent unsolicited. You have received this Morning Health email because you subscribed to it, you have done business with us, or someone forwarded it to you. If you would like to advertise with us, please go to [Emailabilities.com]( If you would prefer not to receive this email...[click here to unsubscribe]( Please read our Privacy Policy. For any further comments or concerns please email us at [morninghealth.com](mailto:heathupdate@morninghealth.com) . Please add [morninghealth.com](mailto:healthupdate@morninghealth.com) to your address book and whitelist us. Email was sent by MorningHealth.com, 1515 North Federal Highway, Boca Raton, Florida 33432 [Morning Health](