[Buddha-l] Buddhist ethics and genetic engineering

[Richard Hayes]

On Thu, 2008-11-27 at 11:08 -0500, S.A. Feite wrote:

>  It probably wouldn't hurt to take a  
> class in Bioethics while you're at it...

What light would a course on bioethics shed on GMO? That is quite simply
not an ethical issue. Getting excited about genetic modifications is a
profound failure to grasp the fundamental essenceless of things. It is a
matter of clinging to old views that God gave everything an essential
nature and that it is evil to tamper with God's work. It is also a
matter of clinging to a false dichotomy between human activity and
nature. Sorry, but Buddhists have no time for superstitions about God or
for fallacy of false dichotomy. 

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico