Are three-parent embryos a good idea?

According to the Cleveland Clinic, mitochondrial diseases are “a group of genetic conditions that affect how mitochondria in your cells produce energy.” They can cause developmental delays in children, profound muscle weakness, hearing loss, blindness, strokes, and heart failure. Those with the worst symptoms die earliest, often before the age of three.

Now there’s a way to prevent the transmission of these diseases to the next generation.

Researchers in the UK reported recently on the birth of eight babies, each of whom was conceived using one sperm and two eggs. They took the combination of the mother and father’s DNA from a fertilized egg with sick mitochondria and inserted it into a surrogate egg with healthy mitochondria stripped of its own DNA. (Think of extracting the yolk from a chicken egg and inserting it into an egg whose yolk had been removed.)

The children produced in this way will avoid the mitochondrial diseases they would otherwise have inherited. What’s not to like about this news?

A good deal, as it turns out.

Five ethical issues

I serve as resident scholar for ethics with one of the largest not-for-profit healthcare systems in the country. In the healthcare context, I understand the appeal of this procedure. If we could remove malignant tumors, why not remove diseased mitochondria to produce healthy babies?

However, I see at least five issues with three-parent embryos.

First, the mitochondria from the surrogate eggs transmitted their own DNA to the children. While only 1 percent of the total, this DNA can influence brain development and affect everything from lifespan and height to kidney and liver function, blood counts, and the development of diabetes or multiple sclerosis.

And this means that the children have three genetic parents. What are the ethical implications here?

Second, we should consider the IVF procedures utilized. A large number of embryos are typically created in the lab and tested for viability; those that are not used are frozen or discarded. If you believe life begins at conception, as I do, then you see these unused embryos as human lives and their demise as a form of abortion.

Third, what are the future consequences of babies created from three parents? They will transmit their genetics to their offspring. Is the human race being altered?

Fourth, will this technique lead to customized children? Will the DNA of persons of unusual capacities (intellectual, athletic, etc.) be sought for inclusion in the future? Will this be a form of eugenics?

Fifth, will three-parent babies become the norm for lesbian couples? Using donor sperm, the DNA of one partner could be combined with the mitochondria of the other so that both are the genetic “parents” of their children.

“I don’t believe in heaven and hell”

Three-parent embryos are intended to prevent disease and death caused by genetically inherited diseases. They are an example of the fact that many people today will do nearly anything to avoid death, whatever the moral issues or consequences at stake.

A data researcher recently noted that “over the course of the last century, something has dramatically changed in how our species thinks about life and death.” Studies show that young people drink less, fight less, have less sex, and commit fewer crimes than any generation in recorded history. Healthcare spending is escalating while motorcycle ridership and extreme sports participation are plummeting.

The rise of secularism in our post-Christian culture is a clear factor here. When religious belief declines, this world becomes all there is. As George Clooney famously stated,

I don’t believe in heaven and hell. I don’t know if I believe in God. All I know is that as an individual, I won’t allow this life—the only thing I know to exist—to be wasted.

In this context, I find this comment in Hebrews 2 fascinating: through Jesus’ death, he came to “deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (v. 15). Such deliverance transformed his followers, enabling them to embrace missional purpose and significance in this life with no fear of death but only anticipation of reward on its other side.

The fisherman who cowed before a serving girl in fear later stood courageously before the very men who arranged Jesus’ crucifixion (Matthew 26:69–70; Acts 4:5–12). Paul could risk his life for Christ again and again (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:23–33) because he was certain that “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

I have seen pastors in Cuba imperil their families and future to preach God’s word fearlessly. I watched a teenage girl in East Malaysia be baptized in the knowledge that because of her public declaration of faith, she could never go home again. I met a young boy in Singapore whose father beat him for going to church but who continued to live at home because he wanted his family to know about Jesus.

How to “be prepared to live”

Now we have a binary choice. If we are not delivered from the “fear of death,” we will be “subject to lifelong slavery” to it. We will choose sins of commission that promise temporal benefits with no concern for their eternal consequences (cf. Mark 7:20–23). We will also choose sins of omission by refusing to sacrifice in the present for the sake of our witness and our Lord (cf. James 4:17).

However, as Jesus warned, “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). When we fear our death more than we fear our Lord, avoiding death becomes our lord.

Our other choice is to trust our fear of death to Jesus, asking to be freed from slavery to it and empowered to live courageously for him. Then, when such fear strikes, we can “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (Ephesians 6:10; cf. Isaiah 41:13). We can claim Jesus’ promise, “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:26).

We can embrace the logic of missionary Jim Elliot’s famous declaration, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” And we will learn to agree with Charles Spurgeon’s assertion:

“To be prepared to die is to be prepared to live.”

Are you “prepared to live” today?

Quote for the day:

“All the glories of midday are eclipsed by the marvels of sunset.” —Charles Spurgeon

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