GMOs and Vaccines Are They Healthy

Journal Articles

Gene Therapy

According to the National Human Genome Research Institute (2022), “gene therapy is a technique that uses a gene(s) to treat, prevent or cure a disease or medical disorder.” It is a novel approach to medicine that has been pursued in hopes of preventing genetic diseases and disorders. However, some ethical issues apply. For instance, because gene therapy is so new and costly, what happens if it is successful but only the wealthy can afford it? Will it mean that those who are poor are still suffer from genetic disorders are likely to be discriminated against? That is one of the concerns put forward by the National Library of Medicine (2022).

Another concern is that people may use gene therapy to alter their biological traits, i.e., make themselves or their children taller, stronger, have certain features, etc. Is this tantamount to playing God? It could certainly be argued that way. After all, God is a co-creator in the human race. He is a collaborator Who takes part in giving to each person a soul and a special character: Psalm 139:13-14 states, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” The special nature of man is such that God takes part in each creative act. Is it offensive to God for man to try to change what God has ordained insofar as people are concerned? Or is it acceptable for mankind to try to perfect themselves if possible through gene therapy? This is a question that is perhaps still unclear. What is clear is that some people believe gene therapy is a noble pursuit, and others worry that it might lead to greater inequality in the world. The most important thing for us, however, as Christians is to remember Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

GMOs

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are all over the world today, and much of what we consume is in some way or form a GMO. One potential problem, however, is that GMOs might escape and introduced the engineered gene into the wild thus affecting all of the wild or natural species and changing it. When mankind changes something, it affects its essence, and if that change is then manifested in all species, it alters the balance or shape of the natural ecology. This can have dire or lasting effects on food chains and on the global populace. Even the smallest change can alter things substantially, as the World Health Organization (2014) points out.

Another problem is that GMOs might not be safe for all people. Because they are genetically modified away from the way God intended them they might not sit well with people as God made us. There is a harmony in all the world by virtue of the design that God gave to it. Isaiah 40:28 states, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.” We can try to understand nature as God made it, but ultimately our wisdom is nothing as compared to God’s—so we cannot know in advance what affect gene modification will have on us or on nature. And it is presumptuous to assume that our meddling will not harm anything. We should be more mindful to care for nature as it was given to us and as it was intended, but so often profits get put in the way of people and God’s plan, and so we justify our meddling on account of believing it will make us wealthy.

Vaccines

Many people are skeptical about vaccines being safe, particularly the COVID vaccine, since it is experimental and was supposedly rushed into development. The African population is especially wary of these vaccines, as Chakamba (2021) shows, as is the African American population—but after all this population does have good reason to be suspicious of the medical establishment. The Tuskegee syphilis experiments violated the principles of the Belmont Report (Adashi et al., 2018). Why should people trust the medical establishment when it has been found to be abusive towards vulnerable and minority populations in the past?

Plus there is the obvious conflict of interest in the FDA, where members of Big Pharma are often to be found to be employed. This conflict of interest suggests that once again profits are coming before people. The fact that one is not allowed to question the safety or efficacy of vaccines on social media because Big Tech will cancel you only goes to further suggest that there is a conflict of interest between big business and the medical establishment. Additionally, one cannot do a Google search of “vaccines problems” and expect to find a fair and balanced take on the issue: all search results have been tailored to project the single viewpoint that vaccines are safe and any other opinion is insane. One would have to do a search of an article by someone like Stefan Lanka to even begin to be able to see another side to this issue.

Not to mention that vaccines may be made from fetal cell lines—i.e., cell lines taken from aborted babies. Christian principles should prohibit anyone from accepting vaccines that are made from or tested on fetal cell lines because it is benefiting from an industry that is based on murdering babies (OLIS, 2022). Scripture commands us: “Thou shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13) yet we might be justifying the murder of innocents when we promote vaccines.

Why do medicine?

Medicine is a fine art that helps one to heal. Natural medicine for thousands of years was practiced, and for many centuries it was Dioscorides with his De Materia Medica that was the basic bible of natural medicine for people. But then medicine began to be politicized and seen more as a business than as a way to help people. Rockefeller helped usher in the era of for-profit medicine by jumpstarting the pharmaceutical industry, to which he could sell oil. He promoted a new “science” and got everyone to “trust the science” of Rockefeller; he helped create new standards in schools that would get everyone trusting in the science, and thus he promoted the new medicine of the modern era that focuses on drug intervention as opposed to natural healing. This is not to say that all drugs are unhelpful but just to suggest that there is a profit-motive behind modern medicine (Mantis, 2019).