The Human Genome Project was first conceived in 1985 in the U.S.A. The idea is to build up a map of the genes in human chromosomes so that the functions and locations of all the 100,000 or so genes in human cells are known. Both the popular and the scientific press have reported the project enthusiastically, and the BBC recently screened a programme about it in the Horizon series, called, rather arrogantly, “The Book of Man”. The intention is to be able to pinpoint the genes which cause inherited disorders, like some cancers, some heart diseases, cystic fibrosis, some mental disorders, and so on.
The cost and scale of the project are staggering, and have been compared with the resources spent on landing men on the moon. Over three billion U.S. dollars will be spent by the U.S. Government, and research and private institutions, on a project that will last fifteen years, spread over laboratories mainly in the U.S., but also in Europe and Japan.
It is a highly complex project, for although there are but forty-six chromosomes per human cell, if all the chromosome threads were unravelled they would measure a total length of over five feet and only fifty trillionths of an inch across. On this slender thread the sequence of three billion nucleotide bases would be analysed using new automated techniques being developed in the U.S. and Japan. Thus it would be possible to develop a complete genetic profile of any individual, or of an unborn baby, making it possible to predict diseases, offer even earlier abortions, or transplant genes into genetically unfit individuals. One biologist has rapturously declared:
“It’s going to tell us everything. Evolution, disease, everything will be based on what’s in that magnificent tape called DNA”.
One is reminded of the ambitions of men in building the tower of Babel. Genesis 11:6 reads:
“And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do”.
Some brethren did not believe that men would reach the moon before Christ came; will God thwart this latest ambition of man by sending His Son before its fulfilment? Surely the potential for harm in this project is very great, and would place man, to a limited extent, in the position of God, able to eliminate some diseases and genetic defects, and even to breed a race of genetically superior human beings.
The techniques used to map and sequence human genes are complex, and are presented in the diagrams over the page. The reader uninterested in the technical details may wish to skip this part and continue reading the main article.
Uses and problems
Every person could have a readout of their own genome, so that an appropriate lifestyle, diet, drugs and environment could be selected. Specific genetic diseases could be predicted, and, if necessary, gene therapy could be undertaken by inserting good genes into a patient’s cells. This, however, may not be as easy as it seems, since many diseases which have an ‘inheritance’ component, like coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, allergies, mental diseases and cancer, are caused not by one gene, but by several.
So treatment by gene therapy could be quite complicated. All of these procedures, however, seem to go against the Divine prerogative of using disease and our health as one means of disciplining and shaping our characters so that we are prepared for the Kingdom. Job, for example, suffered from boils at just the right time, from the Divine viewpoint, after suffering the loss of his family and possessions.
The disease came so that he would learn patience and so perfect his faith in God. Similarly, many of the diseases which Jesus healed, such as the woman with the issue of blood for twelve years, or the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, were timed to occur so that spiritual healing and the development of faith could also take place at the right time.
Despite their euphoria about the Human Genome Project, many biologists recognise that it could cause serious problems. It could lead to an increase in abortions; for example, the Tay Sachs syndrome is a genetically caused disease prevalent among the Jewish community, and a firm, positive prediction after only eight weeks of pregnancy would be possible. The sex of a baby could be known beforehand; God needed no such project to predict the sex of Sarah’s, Rebekah’s, Hannah’s and Mary’s babies!
In some cases, defective genes have beneficial effects, so how can it be known whether deleting a defective gene might not have harmful effects? An example is Sickle Cell Anaemia, caused by a single recessive gene defect. It is known that Africans who are heterozygous for this condition, that is, possessing one defective gene that causes Sickle Cell Anaemia and one normal gene, are much better able to resist malaria than Africans having two normal genes in this position.
Finally, at the present moment, gene transplants are confined to white blood cells in bone marrow, so that any altered genes die with the patient. But if genes were transplanted into germ cells (sperms or eggs), then the new genes would be transferred from one generation to another. This is a horrifying possibility, since it would be possible to develop a genetically pre-determined group of humans. One scientist has already said that “Humans are not good enough or responsible enough to handle this knowledge”, and that “someone will eventually abuse this power”.
Scriptural perspectives
Many ambitions and boasts have been made about what the Human Genome Project will achieve, but essentially all that is being achieved is to map out the gene sequence as God put it in Adam’s cells, nearly 6,000 years ago. As Jesus said: “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?”; “thou canst not make one hair white or black” (Mt 6:27; 5:36). Man will only be able to transplant genes that God has already made, and he cannot at present make any new ones. It may be possible for man to eliminate genetically caused diseases by the use of genome readout and appropriate gene transplantation, but many diseases are not genetic but caused by infection—AIDS, for example. And how clumsy it all seems, when Jesus and the apostles were able to heal by just a word or a touch !
That healing power is a foretaste of the powers of the age to come, when the inhabitants of the world will not say “I am sick”, and when “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped”; when “the lame man (shall) leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing” (Isa. 33:24; 35:5,6). And despite all the confident assertions, man’s greatest sickness—sin and death—is not touched at all by this project.
The Divine Human Genome Project—the Lord Jesus
In comparison with the mainly godless scientists, David said in Psalm 139:14:
“I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well”.
He goes on in verses 15 and 16 to describe how the embryo is formed in the womb, and says:
“in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them”.
The development of the embryo is a still largely unfathomed area of biology and medicine, but David says that God has a book (the scientists called it “that magnificent DNA tape”!) in which all his members were written. In every pregnant womb the mystery of the development of the unborn child takes place, known only to God, and predetermined by the human genome sequence.
Many of the Psalms are Messianic, and if this one is then the DNA sequence in the egg which was miraculously fertilized by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb was also written in God’s book. How carefully God chose the human forebears of the Lord Jesus! Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, even Judah and Tamar, all made their contributions to the body “prepared” (Heb. 10:5).
Through the influence of the Word, his upbringing and his faithful obedience even unto death, Jesus is God’s complete and perfect man, without spot or blemish, now made immortal. We can extend these ideas to ourselves; who hope to be part of the Christ body.
By overruling our family ancestral trees, God has been like the potter choosing a good clay: selecting those genetic characteristics which, in combination with the influence of the Word and appropriate circumstances, will produce godly and faithful men and women.
“He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Eph. 1:4).
May we be part of this Divinely conceived and supervised human genome project.
Evaluating other texts about Creation