Blog | Subscribe | Free Trial | Contact Us | Cart | Donate | Planned Giving
Log In | Search
facebook
rss
twitter
  • CURRENT
    • Winter 2023
    • NEWSworthy: What’s Happening and What It Means to You
    • Blog
    • INSISTING ON LIFE
    • Pastoral Reflections
    • About Us
    • HLF In The News
    • LIBERTY TO DO WHAT? Hadley Arkes and Rusty Reno join George McKenna June 1, 2022 in New York
  • DINNER
    • GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER 2022
    • HOST COMMITTEE Great Defender of Life Dinner 2022
    • Great Defender of Life 2022 Dinner Ticket
    • Great Defender of Life 2022 STUDENT or PREGNANCY CENTER STAFF Ticket
    • DINNER JOURNAL ADVERTISING 2022
  • ARCHIVE
    • Archive Spotlight
    • ISSUES IN HTML FORMAT
  • LEGACY
    • Planned Giving: Wills, Trusts, and Gifts of Stock
  • SHOP
    • Cart

Articles

Over 45 years of Life-Defending Articles At Your Fingertips
3 Comments

The Child Is Real

12 Sep 2022
Victor Lee Austin
Baptism, IVF, reproductive technology
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

He came to a midweek theology class I offered but not to Sunday church. He was drinking the truths about God like the young adult he was, totally innocent of Christianity. Creation, the cross, the resurrection, the importance of the body: All of this was news to him. Theology was his water in a secular desert.

And one day he asked me to baptize his children

They were not yet born. He and his husband would go receive them once they were delivered. Would I do the baptism?

I thought: If you had asked me in advance, I would have raised some cautions about IVF. But I had not been asked—in fact, I’ve never been asked. These children, although not yet born, were already real. My heart told me to say yes. And it wasn’t long before my head got in line with my heart: I recognized the reality of the children. Of course, I would be glad to baptize them, to encourage that they be taught Bible stories and grow in faith and goodness. Of course.

***

Technology increasingly alters our lived reality. In order to help people understand this—to “feel” it—I have encouraged them to read Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. In this novel, which is set in an alternative present, the technology has been perfected to clone a class of humans to make “donations” once they reach maturity. A humanitarian effort was underway before the story begins to treat these clones better, principally by giving them an education.

The novel opens with its characters residing in a special boarding school. They never go home for vacations. There is no formal prohibition of them having sex, but they are told never, never to smoke. We learn that they are sterile, and their body’s organs must be kept healthy. Meanwhile these clones grow through the stages of childhood and adolescence. They have crushes. They try to figure out how the world works. Their function in the world is to make “donations”—provide organs—perhaps three or four; with the last donation they will “complete.” Their lives will end. And yet they do not seem to be machines, or animals, or subhuman. The reader thinks: These children could be our friends.

***

Technology continues to alter lived reality, and yet, however strange it becomes, however close we draw to actually manufacturing human beings—beyond assisting in their conception and gestation—they remain human, and their humanity—their reality—makes a claim upon us. The question is, will we continue to acknowledge that claim? And to be clear, the question of whether we recognize their claim is a question not about their humanity but about ours.

314 people have visited this page. 1 have visited this page today.
About the Author
Victor Lee Austin

The Rev. Canon Victor Lee Austin is theologian-in-residence of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas.

Social Share

  • google-share

3 Comments

  1. Shane Johnson September 22, 2022 at 1:10 pm Reply

    This doesn’t seem right. The implication that the child will be raised in accordance with the Catholic Church. The parents must also be willing to live the life of a Christian. This reminds me of getting all gussied up for a wedding but being less concerned about the marriage. This seems like a very odd article that is sliding in the Episcopalian advocacy of homosexuality. Your feeble after the fact thoughts of caution toward IVF are as useful as a fork at an ice cream eating festival.

  2. TM September 25, 2022 at 2:26 pm Reply

    This article should not have published in Human Life Review. I will no longer read from this review or recommend it. I am thankful that this came to the light

  3. mary vitiello September 26, 2022 at 2:43 pm Reply

    To the first reply, I noted the justification that the couple would take delight in “bible stories.Baptism is a complete responsibility to enable a Christian soul to embrace the Cross through knowledge of sacraments. I was surprised to find this in the Review.I speak to those who profess kindness for IVF couples and to those who choose homosexual marriage as not valid options.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Comments will not be posted until approved by a moderator in an effort to prevent spam and off-topic responses.

*
*

captcha *

Get the Human Life Review

subscribe to HLR

Recent Posts

Legal Issues on Chemical Abortions

13 Mar 2023

HHS weighs declaring access to abortion a "public health emergency’

08 Mar 2023

Rihanna’s Super Bowl pregnancy announcement is an unexpected pro-life moment

15 Feb 2023

CURRENT ISSUE

Anne Conlon Anne Hendershott B G Carter Brian Caulfield Christopher White Clarke Forsythe Colleen O’Hara Connie Marshner David Mills David Poecking David Quinn Diane Moriarty Dr. Donald DeMarco Edward Mechmann Edward Short Ellen Wilson Fielding Fr. Gerald E. Murray George McKenna Helen Alvaré Jane Sarah Jason Morgan Joe Bissonnette John Grondelski Kathryn Jean Lopez Kristan Hawkins Laura Echevarria Madeline Fry Schultz Maria McFadden Maffucci Mary Meehan Mary Rose Somarriba Meaghan Bond Nat Hentoff Nicholas Frankovich Patrick J. Flood Peter Pavia Rev. George G. Brooks Rev. Paul T. Stallsworth Stephen Vincent Tara Jernigan Ursula Hennessey Victor Lee Austin Vincenzina Santoro W. Ross Blackburn Wesley J. Smith William Murchison

Pages

  • Issues
  • Human Life Foundation Blog
  • About Us
  • Free Trial Issue
  • Contact Us
  • Shop
  • Planned Giving
  • TOPICS
  • GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER

Follow Us On Twitter

Tweets by @HumanLifeReview

Find Us On Facebook

Human Life Review/Foundation

Search our Website

Contact Information

The Human Life Foundation, Inc.
The Human Life Review
271 Madison Avenue, Room 1005
New York, New York 10016
(212) 685-5210

Copyright (c) The Human Life Foundation.