Cloned meat: Is FDA competent to decide?

Momma said there'd be days like this.

Cloning is here. Cloning is coming to your local supermarket.

An article in the Baltimore, Md., Sun says the Federal Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is on the verge of deciding whether meat and milk from cloned animals can be sold to the public. (Via RaidersNews Update):

WASHINGTON: The federal government is nearing a decision to allow the sale of meat and milk from cloned cows and their offspring, according to officials from government, industry and consumer groups.

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to take a major step toward approval soon, proposing to permit the sales, subject to 60 days of public comment and additional review.

That could lead to choice cuts of steak and cartons of milk produced from cloned cattle landing in kitchens over the next several years.

Our response: The Food & Drug Administration is not a competent authority to decide.

Oh, sure, the FDA will probably study the health implications and environmental impact six ways from Sunday, and it could well be that no "physical" harm will come to anyone from eating or drinking cloned stuff.

But there are other, more significant, aspects of human life than can be adversely affected.

There is a spiritual question at issue: Is human tampering with the natural order of things -- reproduction, in this case -- going to be met with total indifference on the part of the Creator?

The answer to this question can be summed up in three postulates, or options for belief:

1) If there is no creator god, then worrying about the morality of cloning is silly.

2) If there is a Creator God, why would He care if we choose to improve upon His handiwork? He never gave us a rule about cloning, did He? Where has He been lately anyway? Doesn't He care about all the hungry people and their right to a perfect T-bone steak? If He didn't want us cloning why did He let us discover how?

3) There is a Creator we call God, and He is dismayed that we spend billions of dollars on cloning research to recreate the perfect beef animal while ignoring the basic, and immediate, human needs of the least fortunate in our midst. Corporate farms concentrate on the bottom line and offer no charity to widows, orphans and aliens. If this were not enough to convict us of our unworthiness to enter into the Kingdom, we compound our sins with idolatry and pride. We choose not to rely on our true God for "our daily bread" but turn to Science, our new god, to supply what we see as lacking in the original plan of creation.

And, damn, we are proud of ourselves for it.

And so proud we may just damn ourselves for it.

Sooner or later, you as a modern consumer will be asked to choose among the three options for your belief.

As Indiana Jones was once told by an ancient knight guarding the Holy Grail: "Choose wisely."