Jennifer Jack met Andrew Mireles when she was 16 years old and soon married him, but wondered about his bizarre behavior in the bedroom throughout their seven years together.

After the couple divorced, Jennifer Jack learned the stunning truth about her ex-husband while flipping through an old yearbook; she found a photo of her former spouse as a female. Soon, her former husband's shocking secret came to light: born a female, Mireles underwent a surgical procedure to alter her gender and legally changed her name from Phyllis to Andrew.

A Texas judge earlier this month ruled in favor of Jack's petition to have the marriage annulled on grounds that she did not know that her ex-husband was a woman. News reports quote Mireles as insisting that Jack knew of his past, but she contends that her husband kept it a secret, telling her that they would be unable to have biological children because he had a vasectomy.

Perhaps the saddest factor here is that Jack and Mireles have two children — one fathered by another man before the marriage and another conceived by artificial insemination. Jack and Mireles are locked in a custody battle for the children.

While this might well serve as "Exhibit A" as an illustration of the dangerous outworking of the push within culture toward gender self-definition (or more accurately, redefinition), we as Christians should take no merriment over this mind-boggling situation. Instead, let us be thankful that God spoken and has provided clear guidelines on the way those created in His image are to function:

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Gen 1:27)

This is eternal, transcendent wisdom that, if followed faithfully, will never create an instance such as the one unfolding in Houston, Texas. But the good news is that this very Gospel also provides the life-giving antidote that will bring the light of grace to bear on such a dark, sin beleagured circumstance.

Let us pray for the children of this couple and for both Jack and Mireles that the Gospel of God's redeeming love in Jesus Christ will bring eternal healing to them all.

We welcome the newest complementarian on the CBMW team!

Congratulations to Barak and Heather on the birth of Judah.

Because human egg cells are difficult, costly, and risky to harvest from a woman's ovaries, scientists have been wanting to know whether animal eggs may serve just as well.

A research team at Shanghai Second Medical University has created hybrid embryos that contain a mix of DNA from both humans and rabbits. Cells from the foreskins of two 5 year old boys and two men were fused with rabbit eggs from which the majority of rabbit DNA had been removed. More than 100 of those new entities grew into early part-human, part-rabbit embryos before they were destroyed for stem cell research. Nevertheless, scientists wondered what, exactly, such a creature would be if it were transferred to a human or animal womb to develop to term.

Douglas Melton, a Harvard University cell biologist and cloning expert, noted that although this is the first creation of a human "Chimeric" embryo - a reference to the fabulist Chimera of Greek mythology, which had a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail - it is not the first time scientists have blended human cells in the lab animals. Some mice, for example have been endowed with human brain cells for research purposes.

The British Parliament this week is debating a draft Human Fertility and Embryology bill which would allow scientists to create three different types of human/animal hybrid embryos. In addition, the bill would allow research into possibilities such as making sperm from bone marrow that might mean women could become "fathers."

The Catholic bishops of England and Wales are opposed to the creation of such hybrid humans.  But if the new laws allow them to be created, then they mercifully suggest that the genetic mothers of "Chimeras" should be able to raise them as their own children if they wished. "Such a woman is the genetic mother, or partial mother, of the embryo; should she have a change of heart and wish to carry her child to term, she should not be prevented from doing so." "At the very least, embryos with a preponderance of human genes should be assumed to be embryonic human beings, and should be treated accordingly."

Now is the time to look away from the scientific research of what presently is or soon will be possible, and consider from the Word of God what is morally permissible. We are presented with a plethora of moral concerns with these developments, but at Gender Blog we will restrict our focus to the impact that this has on biblical manhood and womanhood.

We are faced at this point with the imminent possibility that a single man could purchase a rabbit egg, and have it fused with his own skin cell to produce a child. Perhaps this man would need to rent a womb for nine months in a cost-effective third world country, but even that requirement may become obsolete. Conceivably, a woman could team up with a rabbit and then carry her own clone child without the inconvenience of harvesting her own eggs.

Further, a woman might soon be able to have a sperm cell manufactured from her own bone marrow. This would allow, among other things, a lesbian couple to produce children without any masculine intervention - not even an anonymous sperm donor.

Complementarians should have a high view of the value of women as mothers: A woman is not interchangeable with a rabbit. Biblically speaking, fatherhood and motherhood are more than genetic combinations. The creation mandate (Gen. 1:27) did not encourage human beings to mindlessly breed like or with animals. Rather, one man and one woman are to come together in procreation and by God's grace raise children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).

For further posts on this topic, take a look at Is a Woman Just an Egg Factory? and Is a Woman Just a "Womb for Hire"?

Dear Alice,

I have seen multiple advertisements for egg donation in my school's newspaper. I could sell my eggs for $25,000 or more! That's a year of tuition! There's got to be a catch. When I do some research to find out the procedure and the risks, I only seem to find ovum donation "businesses" — not the most straightforward sources on the subject. Alice, I trust you! Can you tell me... what have I got to lose?

— Laying Golden Eggs

The above request for advice from Alice appeared on the website of the Columbia University health service, and refers to the "Egg Donors Wanted" ads increasingly seen on the Internet, in college newspapers and on city trains. According to USA Today and MSNBC, fertility clinics, stem cell researchers, and brokers are bidding up the prices paid for human eggs. One ethicist says that eggs have quickly become "commoditized."

Prices are especially high for fertile college women with top test scores and picture-perfect looks. Many websites exhibit pictures of potential donors sorted by hair color, height, dress size, education and SAT scores. Many donors openly acknowledge that money is a big factor in their decision. "Everyone does it for the money," says egg donor Jennifer Dziura, an aspiring model in New York with perfect SAT scores. "No one would do that for free - maybe for your sister, but not for a stranger." Twenty-five year old Kristin McKenna donated her eggs to help build her savings. "It does feel weird to know there's a child out there," says McKenna, who has signed up to donate again.

Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, director of the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics, sees the problem growing as states such as California move closer to funding major stem-cell research, requiring more donor eggs. "We worry that we offer people so much money that they are blind to the risk and their motivation is strictly the money," Kahn says. That's the very reason, he notes, that it is illegal to sell an organ, such as a kidney, for donation. "So I'm not comfortable saying we should start that with human eggs," he says.

The American Fertility Society feels it is wrong for human eggs to be "sold", but it considers it acceptable to compensate a woman for her time, inconvenience and risk associated with the process of donation. Specifically, an egg donor first takes medication to stop her menstrual cycle. For the next several weeks she injects hormones into her lower abdomen to hyperstimulate her ovaries to immediately produce a crop of mature eggs. Afterward, a needle is surgically inserted through her vaginal wall to suction the ripened eggs from her ovaries. Between 12 to 60 eggs are harvested at once and used for stem-cell research, or invitro fertilization for infertile or homosexual couples

My heart goes out to couples struggling with infertility and college students strapped for cash. People troubled by both problems are represented more than once on the team at CBMW. Nevertheless, like yesterday's post on "wombs for rent" in India, the bioethical concerns are overwhelming. Gender Blog will leave it to other commentators to sort out the myriad sinful problems represented above, and instead focus on the tragedy of commoditizing women.

Being paid for selling eggs, surrogate motherhood or prostitution in each case reduces a woman to the cash value of her femininity. Tellingly, egg broker websites display intimate life details, photographs, and personal essays but not the name of the woman herself. A woman created in the image of God should not be sold in parts.

When Eve was presented to Adam as a helper, he immediately recognized that she was "at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." The marriage relationship of holding fast and forsaking all other is not a commercial transaction for only one component of a woman. A complementarian man should not purchase parts of different women. A complementarian woman created by God should not give away immodestly or sell cheaply any part of herself.

In God's eyes, a woman is more than a womb for hire. Yet:

Commercial surrogacy, or being paid to give birth to the child of a stranger, was legalized in India in 2002. Since then "Reproductive outsourcing" has been a rapidly expanding business in which poor women are hired to carry babies to term for heterosexual and homosexual couples from around the world.

The Times Online cites official sources suggesting that this "reproductive sector" of India's economy will be worth as much as $12 billion this year.

As more Westerners opt to outsource pregnancies to the subcontinent, some Indian clinics are reporting a fourfold rise in the number of foreign clients on their books in the past year. As demand increases, newspaper adverts for surrogates are becoming more common. "British couple seeks surrogate to carry child. Great pay!! A $1,000.00 bonus!!!" reads one..

The New York Times describes two homosexual men who "plan eventually to tell their child about being made in India, in the womb of a stranger, with the egg of a Mumbai housewife they picked from an Internet lineup." "We picked the one with the highest level of education," Mr. Gher said. From profiles of egg donors that were sent by e-mail, they rejected a factory worker in favor of a housewife, who they thought would have a less stressful lifestyle.

The overwhelming attraction is the price - 80% less than the United States. "Doctors, lawyers, accountants, they can afford it, but the rest of us - the teachers, the nurses, the secretaries - we can't, unless we go to India," said Lisa Switzer from San Antonio, Texas whose twins are being carried by a surrogate mother. Cheap medical care, a supply of equally cheap surrogate mothers and the absence of legal controls have made India the world leader in commercial surrogacy, according to the Times Online.

Another advantage in the eyes of customers is that women can be kept "free from vices like alcohol, smoking and drugs." For example, many surrogate mothers live together in a hostel attached to the clinic where they will donate eggs, receive implanted embryos, gestate under supervision and receive payment when the babies are delivered. According to policy, the donor and surrogate mother are always different women to reduce the likelihood of bonding with the child. Likewise, at most clinics contact is not permitted between the egg donor, surrogate mother or future parents.

The biblical, ethical and personal dilemmas from these news accounts are almost too overwhelming to count. Even government officials who are actively promoting India as a medical tourism destination, express discomfort over this exchange of money for babies.

My heart goes out to everyone involved: couples struggling with infertility, poor women giving up babies they have carried to term, parents looking for children at economical prices, homosexual couples hiring strangers to produce offspring, living embryos destroyed as a result of invitro fertilization, and growing humans who will come to learn of a bizarre conception.

A woman is more than a womb for hire. Another man's wife is more than a baby-making factory at a competitive price. The apostle Peter commands husbands to "show honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life" (1 Peter 3:7). In other words, every woman bears the image of God and has equal access as men to salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ. It is a dishonor to women and to God to use their bodies to bear children outside of the protection of marriage.

Please pray that God would stop this horror. Pray that God would open the eyes of all of the people involved in this business. Pray that more governments would make this industry illegal. Pray that the gospel would advance and that the church would stand mightily against this trade.