I recently wrote a short reflection on relativism and the enormous damage it has done, and continues to do, in society. Objective truth exists, just as good exists and evil exists.
The philosophical current of relativism has come to poison everything, so that, for many, it is frankly difficult to distinguish what is true and what is a lie, or what is good and what is bad.
For many years now, they have made us see that good things are intrinsically bad. Majorities do not turn what is objectively bad into good. An abortion law approved by a majority in parliament is still an unjust law. Legalizing the death of an innocent person will be legal, but it is deeply immoral.
Recently, the Bioethics Manual for Young People published by the Jérome Lejeune Foundation, Delegation in Spain, has fallen into my hands. Dr. Jérome Lejeune is considered the father of modern genetics for discovering trisomy 21, the genetic cause of Down Syndrome, in 1958. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine on two occasions, but it was not awarded because he was a staunch defender of life and was always against abortion in any situation. The discriminatory power of globalization and single thinking were evident on those two occasions.
From here on, the italicized letter is a transcription of that Bioethics Manual.
In this Bioethics Manual, it is explained in a very simple and very clear way that the history of a human being begins at fertilization. At the moment when the genetic information provided by the father’s sperm meets that provided by the mother’s egg, a new human life begins. This occurs from day 1. The human embryo is a living being with human genetic heritage. Therefore, it is a human being. At any time during pregnancy that an abortion is performed, a human being is being killed.
Accepting that fertilization is the beginning of a new human being is not a matter of taste or opinion, it is a biological reality.
Another topic that we see with complete normality is assisted reproduction using the in vitro fertilization method. Through in vitro fertilization, embryos are conceived outside the mother’s body. From fertilization, these embryos are human beings like those conceived in vivo, even if they are not implanted in the mother’s uterus. Destroying them in vitro or in vivo is an abortion.
Around 70% of the embryos generated are thrown away or used for research with the consequent death of the embryo.
Another assisted reproduction method is in vitro fertilization with a surrogate mother. This is already elevating the reification of the human being to the nth degree.
According to Human Rights, the child cannot be considered as an object at the disposal of another. The child is not a right.
Medicine, instead of replacing parents, should cure them of their sterility.
Genetic manipulation, creating human embryos in a laboratory and everything that is derived from that: sperm selection, embryo selection, preimplantation diagnosis, surrogate mothers, cloning, etc., has completely distorted the meaning of the transmission of the life of the human being. The dignity of the person is compromised by being treated as a commodity or a whim in which I can even choose the color of their hair or eyes. And the most serious thing, the number of abortions that are performed by throwing away a huge number of embryos.
It is true that there are many of us who are radically against abortion, but how many of us must agree with in vitro fertilization and the consequent destruction of unused embryos (abortions) and other genetic manipulations? I’m afraid few. Possibly due to ignorance. In this sense, I miss much more intensive and detailed information from the Church.
How far all this is from God’s plans. Logically, we have separated God from our lives and, sinning very seriously from pride, we want to be like Him and we believe that we will be able to create life artificially, but we are totally wrong because only God can give and take life.
We already know that “the forces of evil will not prevail,” but we have to work to make it so. It’s like Divine Providence, you not only have to believe in it, you have to work hard to earn it.
