[Buddha-l] Buddhist ethics and genetic engineering

[Richard Hayes]

On Fri, 2008-11-28 at 08:34 -0500, S.A. Feite wrote:

> Taking an absolute POV and ignoring relative distinctions is falling  
> into an extreme, and thus not the Middle Way.

So you are now admitting that saying you would like to wring the necks
of those who do experiments in genetic modification was an extreme
absolutlist position and unworthy of a Buddhist. It is good that we have
found a point of agreement.

> Since sentience of some sort or another is the very basis for  
> awakening, sentience--esp. human embodiment, with it's unique self- 
> reflective capabilities, is vitally important.

Sentience also creates all the problems on account of which we need
awakening. It is highly overrated, in my opinion.

>  Such capabilities did not arise through the  
> egoic, greed-driven intervention of gene splicers, they came into  
> being by a process of natural selection over millions and billions of  
> years of simple trial and error.

Yes, changes came about through billions of years of random mutations.
That does not entail that change cannot also come about through
systematic mutations done under controlled conditions. Nor does it
follow that "simple trial and error" (as you mistakenly call what would
better be called random mutations) is inherently more pure, more natural
or morally better than controlled trial and error.

> Most people are not even aware that patented genetic life-forms can  
> be patented by corporations.

I am aware of this. It does not alarm me. Should it?

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico