Lewis D. Solomon

the matchless dignity of the human personality by test­tubes, syringes and the soulless artificiality of computerized numbers.’

This paper examines what the Jewish tradition has to say about what limits should exist on the gratification of parents’ desires, when in the future technology will allow parents to fulfill their wish for a “perfect” baby. Should we fashion children to specification? Should we try to defeat aging and death? Should we use every new technology? Should we preserve the elements of life’s mystery? How much room should we leave for God ? How can we enrich the human condition yet continue to exalt the Eternal? Ultimately, we must ask: What does it mean to be human?

In answering the questions of what is God ’s Domain, is it wrong to tread on the Eternal’s Territory? The Book of Genesis sounds a cautionary note, reminding us of the warning coming from the tale of the Tower of Babel : Do not tamper with the“natural” order. Not everything humanity wants to do is proper. The attempted construction of the Tower of Babel provides a commentary on human hubris, the overstepping of appropriate bounds.” At Babel, humans wanted to show that their ingenuity had the capacity to reach to the level of God . They set out to build a tower that would rise up to heaven itself The Eternal, we are told, preferring that humans stay within the earthly domain, halted the structure by confounding language and dispersing people across the globe.

This paper offers a much more positive note. God gives us the tools and the knowledge to tamper with the Divine arrangement of the world. The Jewish tradition teaches that we should cure, if not prevent, diseases and disabilities, regarded as harmful evils to be overcome. We can aid God in the Divine act of healing and curing. The mainstream of the Jewish tradition welcomes therapeutic genetic engineering but not genetic enhancement, which I favor. Leave it to individuals to decide and implement what they regard as a“good”