SEA GIRT - According to recent headlines, scientists in California have succeeded in cloning a human embryo using skin cells from one of the male scientists at a private lab and the egg cells of young, fertile women. The nuclei of the egg cells were removed first so the resulting embryos became genetically identical to the male contributors. The cloned embryos survived to the stage that is considered optimal for removing the stem cells, which always results in destroying the growing embryos.

The researchers insist that they're not trying to clone human babies but theoretically that is now a distinct possibility. This development comes hot on the heels of the announcement last November by an Oregon research team that fabricated a clone embryo from the skin cells of an adult male rhesus macaque and the manipulated egg cell of a female monkey. That immediately prompted an urgent plea by the United Nations for either a global ban on human cloning or global legislation to protect the rights of cloned individuals. Meanwhile, in Great Britain, scientists have received permission from the government to pursue research that would produce so-called hybrid human-animal embryos.

It appears that Pandora's proverbial box is about to be flung wide open and even those without religious reservations would do well to stop and ponder what we as a species might be letting ourselves in for with these kinds of experiments. Of course, the folks involved in this field of inquiry argue that they're working toward the greater good of mankind but it seems that any natural trepidation is conveniently trumped by ambition and a false sense of confidence in controlled laboratory conditions. However, as every ordinary person as well as every good science fiction writer can tell you, anything that can go wrong generally will.

There actually are things that are far beyond our reach, not because we shouldn't try to understand everything but because we should approach even the smallest miracles of creation with respect rather than a small-minded, utilitarian perspective. Global warming may prove to be a moot point if we wipe out human life by some inadvertent slip-up or unforeseen occurrence in genetic engineering. In truth, the welfare of humanity always rests upon the ineluctable and entirely personal character of love. No one can really love mankind as a whole; human beings are only ever able to love other individuals. Love is personal, even when it is turned toward a stranger or an enemy.

God's love, in turn, is also always personal. This makes each person immeasurably important, of personal worth simply because he or she is loved by God. The utility of a human life, at any stage, has no meaning in an equation in which every human life always elicits God's infinite love.

In a certain sense human beings are the embodiment of God's love and at its best the love between a man and a woman can be made manifest in the wonderful gift of life, a human child. Every child might not be conceived in deliberate human love but God's love is always present.

What's being done in genetic labs worldwide in the name of mankind has emptied all trace of human love from the process. Life is not a commodity. It is the only truly sacred thing in this created world, not because we have chosen to call it sacred or didn't understand its mysteries. Human life is sacred because God has chosen to love us. God's love alone makes human life sacred.