Dear Editor: I am responding to the usually conservative Father Pacholczyk’s Feb. 20 column on “Human Organs from Pigs.” I was shocked with his very pro-scientific endorsement of chimeras. While he softly cautions us at the end of his article about some of the dangers, I feel he has jumped to the other side of the fence on this issue.
He appears to endorse the non-embryonic stem cell approach attempting to show some Catholic theology. The real question is not scientific, but theological/philosophical. If we can manipulate genetic conception to produce a creature with human compatible organs, where does it stop? If we maximize productivity in the marketplace, and suppose we create a 50/50 mix of genetic material, what is it? If from the waist down it is human, and from the waist up a pig, what kind of soul would it have?
This path is more than just scientific, but is a direct attack on God’s creative design. If science pushes a 75/25 split, with a majority of human genetic material, will we have humans with curly tails? While sharing tissues is one thing, creating human organ farms with maximized efficiency and profit, is a direct attack on God. “Well God, is it a pig or a human, do we baptize it or not?” is the question.
We are tempting God and challenging His creative abilities when we try to do one better than He does.
RICHARD HUTTER
Glendale