[Buddha-l] Buddhist ethics and genetic engineering

[Richard Hayes]

On Wed, 2008-11-26 at 20:18 -0500, S.A. Feite wrote:

> isn't DNA our honest karmic footprint as homo sapiens and as  
> a sentient life-form? And if "yes" what does that say about "cut and  
> pasting" ancient karmic fragments of differing sentient beings for our  
> egoic satisfaction?

If one is going to believe in something like karma in the first place,
then it should not be too difficult to believe that when the karmic
fragments of beings are mixed, the mixing itself is one of the natural
consequences of the kind of karma done by the beings so mixed.

> Puhleeze give me the fortitude to keep my hands away from the necks of  
> these maniacs I say. Demand GMO labeling laws NOW.

Oh give me a break! This precious concern with GMO is one of the most
absurd manifestations of paranoia to hit the post-hippy generation. It
deserves about as much credence as the law in Leviticus against mixing
types of fibre in the same piece of cloth. Let's leave GMO hand-wringing
to biblical fundamentalists who believe that God created the world in
six days and rested on the seventh and to neo-Daoists who took way too
much LSD while reading their Laozi.

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico