“Courage, fidelity, fortitude, generosity, hope, moderation, perseverance, are all cultivated in response to limitations of circumstance and nature,” says John Haldane, a Catholic philosopher who teaches at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.…when we attempt to be something more than human, are we running the risk of trying to become, in some ways, like God, as did Adam and Eve?Todd Daly, Urbana Theological Seminary

Catholics actively support medical and technological advances that can restore someone to health, says Brugger.“But the dividing line for the church is the line between therapy and enhancement.”

Concerns about crossing that line already have been expressed by Catholic-affiliated organizations.In 2013, for instance, the church-affiliated International Science and Life Congress met in Madrid and issued a declaration that warned that “new human species, artificially manipulated” would create “a real danger to human life as we know it.”

Conservative evangelical Protestant churches also are likely to be wary of treatments or technologies that enhance, rather than heal, people, says Daly of Urbana Theological Seminary.