Nursing Essays on Spirituality
In Meilaender’s reading, both “procreation” and “reproduction” considering the views of life and the world, describe the process of generating new life. The distinction between procreation and reproduction comes in the context where they are used. Meilaender believes that in the pre-modern Christian English-speaking world or context, procreation is the process through which God created the world and generated new life in the form of vegetation, animals, and human beings (Meilaender 10). However, generation of new life in the modern world sees the term change from procreation to reproduction. As such, Meilaender believes that reproduction is the generation of new life with the influence of the machine and the gross national product, which refers to man’s own work of creation. He argues that the shift from the use of the term procreation to reproduction is a manifestation of how free humans have become to an extent that they have mastered and reshaped their world (Meilaender 11).
Regarding the concepts of “being made” and “being begotten,” Meilaender argues that “being begotten” is when a person comes from eternity or the transmission of life from father to son, as in the case of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Meilaender 10). On the other hand, he defines “being made” as the involvement of various techniques such as artificial insemination to spring forth a new life.
From a personal perspective, both procreation and reproduction involve springing forth of new life, and there is no clear distinction between the two. Moreover, “being begotten” and “being made” refer to the generation of a new life, which means that there is no distinction between the two as well, and thus, I do not agree with Meilaender’s descriptions.
Work Cited
Meilaender, Gilbert. Bioethics: A Primer for Christians. Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013. Print.