I know how long the CF forums can go, so I will lastly state my opinion and it can be taken or left at the doorstop.
A human MUST be born of a woman's bag of waters through marriage. Marriage in Hebrew is "onar," which means "sexual cohabitation." There was no artificial insemination in Christ's time, which is why He was so specific about birth, and who can enter the Kingdom (the word is living.) You can choose to contextualize His words, but if He wanted us to artificially inseminate ourselves, clone ourselves, or anything similar, He would have said so, and made it clear. It is not a human's job to create any form of life, because GOD is the author of life (not us.)
Moreover, as I said before, a HUMAN CANNOT CREATE A SPIRIT. So, whereas we may be dead in the spirit now, our grandparents Adam and Eve were given spirit, and through sin and then procreation created a people of deep spiritual ineptitude. But, ineptitude is not the same as non-existence. Even death is not the same as "never existing," like the spirit of a cloned human would be. We can have our spirits revived by Christ, but how can you revive something that was neither alive, nor dead to begin with (because a human created by a human does not have a spirit.) Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, etc. has sex (onah) in order to produce more humans. They did not have any hand in forming the baby in the womb, combining and recombining DNA, deciding which genes to turn on and off, etc (except sexual intercourse and nutrition.) God knits us in the womb.
I am sure there are genetic ways to create cures, but in this techonocosmos haven't you noticed that when one thing is "cured," three more types of deadly and incurable things seem to come up. It is because everything on this earth is supposed to be natural, and naturally evolve. Sure, we can cure cancer, but we realize an incurable strain of bacteria surfaces because we have, say, deforested most all of the rain forest to build metropolis. It is man's attempt to escape the judgment of God, which says WE WILL DIE. Every man is deserving of one death. I am not against cures and health, but I am against synthetic biology (pharmacy mainly, and cloning.) I believe God is against anything synthetic because it isn't the truth.
Manipulating DNA before, during or after the womb is abominable in my opinion. We are not gods. If you cannot have a child, maybe that is not His will for YOU.
I believe humans try to take away judgments of God, and His times of testing, by using technology. If you are naturally barren, it is not your job as a human to make your womb fertile: it is God's job. The argument that "God works through science/scientists" is so hackneyed that it has blurred the ethical line, not to mention the spiritual line. God does not need doctors, or physicists, to help/cure/save His people. People talk about why God doesn't heal amputees, but many of those people miss the important concept of FAITH and LONG-SUFFERING. If you naturally let God work you will gain much more than cheaply trying to rely on some synthetic means of what you think is bettering yourself.
The blind man that Jesus healed was an old man before his eyesight was restored. Consequently, it was a test of the blind man's faith to make it as long as he did without sight, and his faith was rewarded by Christ performing a miracle. He was used as an instrument of God in revealing Himself to us. People do not realize how dangerous synthetic biology is because "science and technology" often tries to justify itself separate from spirituality. However, the line is very fine and scientists, doctors, etc. often cross it, and influence others to believe this step over the line is benign when it is wicked.
God is the only one that gives spirit. Humans can create masses of complex cells and structures (known as a humanoids) until there are no more elements left in the world, but it doesn't mean any of them have a God-given spirit just because man made them. And it especially doesn't mean this humanoid qualifies to receive a God-given spirit, as they were not knitted by God in the first place (but by man.) In fact, if the process was synthetic, and not through the water of birth (by "onah,") then the creature has no God-given spirit. Being a fleshly terran is not the same as being human.
That is my 2 cents. I respect other people's opinion in support of gene therapy, manipulation and engineering, and have researched these topics on my own (and in academia.) However, I staunchly disagree with the scientific status-quo, and I believe Christ would also.
