[Buddha-l] Buddhist ethics and genetic engineering

[Jim Peavler]

I don't know. There is a considerable range of opinion about etics and  
science both when it comes to genetic research. Usually the inserted  
gene has no measurable effect on the new organism other than the one  
feature being studied or manipulated. For example, the spider gene in  
one strain of goats makes it possible to make an incredibly strong  
fiber from goat's milk and does very little else. And what are the  
ethical manifestations of developing a food grain that can thrive in  
brackish water to the starving people of Bangladesh or India? And what  
is the sense of the furor over insect resistant corn in Mexico? All  
corn is highly hybridized for centuries. All that has really changed  
in this case is the speed of the hybridization. And genes don't pass  
through the digestive tract into the ingesting organism at all well.

It is certainly possible to create monsters, and the monster are  
likely to suffer, and this raises ethical an scientific questions. But  
I have a difficult time becoming hysterical over genetic manipulation  
ans study in and of itself. Of course I am also pro-nuclear power,  
having worked on nuclear waste management (which, by the way, is  not  
difficult to achieve at the present time) for most of my life.

You mustn't trust my opinion. I am a scientific humanist and voted for  
Obama.


On Nov 27, 2008, at 9:08 AM, S.A. Feite wrote:

>
> On Nov 27, 2008, at 2:09 AM, Richard Hayes wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 2008-11-26 at 20:18 -0500, S.A. Feite wrote:
>>
>>
>>> 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.
>
>
> Thanks for the news from Podunk U. Richard. It sounds like a course in
> human biology may be in order. It probably wouldn't hurt to take a
> class in Bioethics while you're at it...
>
>
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Jim Peavler
jmp at peavler.org