As bad as it might be to destroy a creature made in God's image, it might be very much worse to be creating them after images of one's own.
“In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.”
“The idea of infection began to be taken far more seriously than it ever had before. Hospitals transformed themselves in response to the new plague - sometimes for the better, but often for the worse, as when, in fear, they cast their ulcerated patients out into the streets.”