Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven
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| Sunny Days in Heaven Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven |
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Friday, December 19, 2003 Disturbing Pragmatism I hate to invoke the Nazis or Dr. Mengele when we talk about biotechnology, experiments with clones, stem cells, embryos, and such, but how can you avoid the kind of justifications that abound among so many as they contemplate their Brave New Worlds as in this TCS article. The only way that I can see to definitely rule out the dystopian scenarios is with a radical, worldwide draconian dictatorship. In the absence of totalitarian rule, biotechnology will be developed and all of us will be tempted or pressured into adopting it. The problem with trying to regulate biotechnology is that the nature of the regulations would be completely unprecedented. We have regulated technology in the past, but never in the ways that would be required in order to impede the biotech revolution. Would it have been a draconian dictatorship to deny the Nazis their research imperatives? The fact is that if the US and Europe banned the kind of experimentation such technologists wish to do, it simply would not be done. Research takes money, and a tech base which only certain advanced countries can provide. There is also ther further argument that there is more than one way to skin a cat to acquire knowledge. The ban on using humans as guinea pigs puts a big cramp on a great deal of research, but research is done, and knowledge is acquired despite this restriction. The idea that certain kinds of knowledge is indispensible, and can only be acquired by unethical means (evil) is a big lie. But who are we going to complain to? Who is listening? How many care about essential right and wrong? posted by Mark Butterworth | 6:34 AM | |
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