Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (ESV). This verse is the foundation of human dignity throughout Western history. “Imago Dei” is Latin for the “image of God.” To be created imago Dei means being endowed with an immortal spirit, a capacity to know and be known by God, a measure of autonomy and free will in the areas of thought and action, each of which separate us from the rest of creation.Because we bear the image of God, all mankind, and, by extension, each and every human life has a “specialness” and worth that demands respect. Each human life, from its earliest stage of development, is a unique Person which bears God’s likeness, and should have the same protection of law that is afforded other “persons” in our society. For this reason, all human life should be respected in law. This respect is due regardless of the manner of conception, whether through the marital act, fertilized “in vitro” (IVF), or through the “ex utero” process of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT, otherwise know as cloning).
