All Articles For Moral Aspects of Medical Technology

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. In our last article we concluded a discussion of various medical means which have been employed to enable childless couples to have children. A few other scientific techniques, techniques which we have not yet discussed, are so closely connected with this subject that they should be at least briefly addressed in connection with our broader subject. Four such subjects have often been treated by ethicists as they ponder the problems which advances in medical science have created. These four are: frozen embryos, sex selection,...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. The physical and psychological consequences of induced abortion are many and serious. John Jefferson Davis in his book Evangelical Ethics refers to many of them. We include such a list here for its significance to the whole question. (A detailed discussion of this subject may be found on pp. 138ff.) —While some debate is still going on over this question, it seems certain that the death rate among those who have abortions is significantly larger than the death rate of mothers who carry their children to...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Before we get into the question of genetic engineering, I want to come back briefly to the question of surrogate motherhood, a subject we have been discussing in the past few articles. In the course of our discussion of this subject, we had opportunity to notice a case which was pending in the New Jersey courts in which a mother, Mary Beth Whitehead, agreed to bear a child for William and Elizabeth Stern for $10,000. She was artificially impregnated with sperm from William Stern...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. In the last article in the Standard Bearer on this subject, we discussed what genetic engineering was all about. In this article we want to be a bit more specific and describe some of the things that are already being done through genetic engineering and some of the things which scientists contemplate doing in the future. Many benefits have already been reaped from genetic engineering in the production of food, both fruits and vegetables and meat from animals, chickens, turkeys and fish. Genetic engineering in fruits...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Genetic Engineering! What high hopes this holds for the future of man! It has the potential to create heaven on earth and loose man once and for all from the chains of ignorance and poverty which hold him in his dark prison! We have discussed in our last article what men have already accomplished through genetic engineering and what they hope to accomplish in the future as the genetic code is broken and the secrets of it are learned. We have to discuss one...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Last time we considered the significance of the doctrine of Scripture concerning Christ in our discussion of what is meant by person. Because Christ was like us in all things, an analogy is present between this truth and the truth concerning any child conceived in the womb of its mother. That a child is born is a great wonder, and is surely beyond our understanding. But the fact nevertheless remains that not just simply a body is formed in the womb of its mother,...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Contraception has become so common that the whole practice is hardly called into question any more. Even in the one denomination which forbids the use of contraception, the Roman Catholic Church, over half of the members are reported to practice it. For many years it has been hailed as a major medical breakthrough, which will succeed in curbing the earth’s population. It has been rigorously promoted as a valuable tool of population control. The doomsayers who have bombarded us with propaganda about terrible times...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Science and medical technology have made tremendous strides in the last couple of decades. Many of these advances have opened new doors to the whole area of human reproduction. In an article inChristian News, June 24, 1985, Wayne Jackson writes: Note some of the bizarre speculative enterprises currently being suggested by some scientists. Nobel Prize-winning scientists claim they will be able to produce live, carbon-copy clones of you in less than ten years. Corporations will have the legal right to own and sell all...

Herman C. Hanko is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary. As we continue our discussion of the moral considerations which enter into genetic engineering, I think if fruitful to hear what others have to say on this matter. In our last article we quoted from Joseph Fletcher, a new moralist, who wants not only a blanket approval of this (if done for the common good) but also wants this to be enforced by law. In the February 7, 1986 issue of Christianity Todayvarious ethicists gave their opinions on the matter, and we quote excerpts from...