Mike and Pam Obadia have an eight-year-old son who is suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It has been determined by Canadian doctors that a bone marrow transplant might improve his chances of survival, but the sad fact is that no one in the family has a match.
This is what prompted the Obadias to investigate the possibility of utilizing in vitro fertilization for the express purpose of creating a human embryo whose cells would match their son’s. The idea is that the IVF specialists would create several embryos, which would be evaluated through a preimplantation genetic diagnosis test, and only the one that matches the little boy would be transferred into the mother’s uterus. If this were to actually occur, one can assume that the rest of the human embryonic children would be disposed of in some way as the parents are only interested in having the one baby who can become the “savior” for the eight-year-old son.
I am not suggesting that these parents have even thought this through and realize that each of the human embryos “created” via IVF would in fact be one of their children. I doubt that such information has been provided to them and I seriously doubt that it ever would be. These parents are desperate to do what they can for their son and those who make money by making promises over the dead bodies of embryonic children have no ethics to begin with or they would not offer such a “service.”
It is of great interest to me that the Canadian doctors will not do this because of the ethical and moral problems that such a process would create. But the Obadias have found a willing laboratory in Chicago, Illinois. For $30,000 U.S. the experts at the Reproductive Genetics Institute will be happy to oblige the Obadias, even though they know Mrs. Obadiah is 47 years old, and the chances her eggs being capable of being fertilized are very small indeed. The Institute specializes in genetic testing, in vitro fertilization and related practices, such as the PGD testing that would provide the Obadias with a possible “match.”
If Mrs. Obabia’s pregnancy came to fruition, she has told the media that she and her husband would welcome the baby, as they have always wanted another child. God bless her for that. But the risks to her are enormous since she is 47 years old. There is nothing simple about this case, which, as far as I can tell, is fraught with ethical landmines.
The thing that troubles me the most about this sad story is the view that these parents have toward a possible “savior” for their young son. I learned a long time ago that there is nothing ethical about preimplantation genetic diagnosis. In fact Professor Dianne Irving, in her article “'Gnostic Soup': Pagan fertility gods, IVF, Hollywood, cloning/genetic engineering, bioethics, transhumanism, libertarians, drugs, eugenics, etc." explains that “Liberal eugenics is the study and use of genetic engineering to improve human beings, specifically in regards to biological characteristics and capacities. . . . Reprogenetics is a term referring to the merging of reproductive medicine and genetics technologies expected to happen in the near future as techniques like preimplantation genetic diagnosis become more available and more powerful. “
The future that Professor Irving describes in this chilling account is actually happening right now. Whether or not the Obadias realize it, they are being victimized by the current attitudes of the genetic engineering cartel, which posit that children are mere chattel and that families have a right to order the perfect baby, get rid of those who are genetically “imperfect” and use these embryonic children for myriad purposes that rob each of them of their human dignity.
Though my heart breaks for the family and their dilemma, my hope and prayer is that as they do more research into the macabre science that has enabled families like them to choose only those embryonic children that meet a certain specification. I hope they will realize that this is not the ethical way to discover the cure for their son.
In the meantime, I invite you to join me in praying for a miracle for the Obadiah family. Let us pray that God in His mercy will protect the family from becoming yet another statistic that Frankenstein-like reproductive specialists like the Reproductive Genetics Institute will use to raise more money, further allowing them to make the science available to help couples have special-order children whose siblings will wind up in the trash.