Tell a spiritual person that embryo selection could help eliminate the most severe genetic disorders, and you’d be told that you are trying to interfere with God’s plan. God manifests Himself through people, all kinds of people, including those who suffer, and eliminating people of one kind would mean diminishing God.
Or you may be told some other bullshit, but the gist will be unmistakable: The pain is good. Do not dare to fight it!
I believe that at least one spiritual person told you this at least once, but as a statement about spiritual people, it’s false.
Percentage of Approval for PGD by Purpose and Demographic Characteristics
For testing for fatal childhood diseases, respondents who approved:
Total: 67.6%
No religion: 79.9%
Protestant (excluding Evangelical and Fundamentalist): 73.5% - highest religious grouping
Protestant (Evangelical and Fundamentalist): 48.6% - lowest religious grouping
Putting aside the distinction between “spiritual” and “religious”, tell a spiritual person in 2005 that embryo selection could help eliminate the most severe genetic disorders, and the most likely response was approval. Since then I understand that PGD has become better known, more common, and more popular.
My sense is that religious opposition to killing embryos (considered as abortion) is the dominant concern. See for example Dignitas Personae, section 22. This is different to the claimed “pain is good” or “God’s plan” argument. A “pain is good” argument implies opposition to anesthetics, for example, which is extremely rare.
Putting aside the distinction between “spiritual” and “religious”, tell a spiritual person in 2005 that embryo selection could help eliminate the most severe genetic disorders, and the most likely response was approval.
Seems false. (Linked forum has quite a few religious/“spiritual” people, and they do not seem to approve of embryo selection at all. For, uh, pretty obvious reasons.)
My sense is that religious opposition to killing embryos (considered as abortion) is the dominant concern. See for example Dignitas Personae, section 22.
Exactly—but this contradicts the claim about “mostly likely response” being “approval”!
The forum thread also has people who think killing surplus IVF embryos is permissible. I don’t know the spiritual or religious beliefs of the participants. So this is not evidence I can use as to the overall rate of approval.
I think survey data is stronger evidence than a forum thread. I found later surveys from 2020+ on gene editing and PES that were similar, religious affiliation is correlated with disapproval but eliminating serious disease remains popular, along with IVF.
Re: contradiction, my claim is that, for religious people who disapprove, abortion concerns are more common than “pain is good”. That’s fully compatible with approval being the most common response in the Pew 2005 survey results.
I believe that at least one spiritual person told you this at least once, but as a statement about spiritual people, it’s false.
The most recent US survey on Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) I found was Pew 2005, Reproductive Genetic Testing: What America Thinks. Table 3.2 seems most relevant:
For testing for fatal childhood diseases, respondents who approved:
Total: 67.6%
No religion: 79.9%
Protestant (excluding Evangelical and Fundamentalist): 73.5% - highest religious grouping
Protestant (Evangelical and Fundamentalist): 48.6% - lowest religious grouping
Putting aside the distinction between “spiritual” and “religious”, tell a spiritual person in 2005 that embryo selection could help eliminate the most severe genetic disorders, and the most likely response was approval. Since then I understand that PGD has become better known, more common, and more popular.
My sense is that religious opposition to killing embryos (considered as abortion) is the dominant concern. See for example Dignitas Personae, section 22. This is different to the claimed “pain is good” or “God’s plan” argument. A “pain is good” argument implies opposition to anesthetics, for example, which is extremely rare.
Seems false. (Linked forum has quite a few religious/“spiritual” people, and they do not seem to approve of embryo selection at all. For, uh, pretty obvious reasons.)
Exactly—but this contradicts the claim about “mostly likely response” being “approval”!
The forum thread also has people who think killing surplus IVF embryos is permissible. I don’t know the spiritual or religious beliefs of the participants. So this is not evidence I can use as to the overall rate of approval.
I think survey data is stronger evidence than a forum thread. I found later surveys from 2020+ on gene editing and PES that were similar, religious affiliation is correlated with disapproval but eliminating serious disease remains popular, along with IVF.
Re: contradiction, my claim is that, for religious people who disapprove, abortion concerns are more common than “pain is good”. That’s fully compatible with approval being the most common response in the Pew 2005 survey results.