On The Edge of a Genetic Razor
April 30, 2008
We currently are on the edge of a genetic razor. As long as we do nothing and stand perfectly still we come to no harm. Shift our weight to one side or the other without creating a counter balance and we are cut in twain. While standing still doing nothing might seem safe, it does nothing for our genetic progress as a species.
A news report out of The Scotsman, suggests under British law, and probably that of a number of other countries, that it is perfectly legal to artificially inseminate an animal with human sperm. The belief by scientists is a hybrid could be created as an organ donor, by fertilizing a female chimp with human sperm. The fact that this has been made public suggests they have had successful petri dish trials. The notion is fairly noble, but in reality it scares the shit out of me.
I don’t believe in an almighty god or gods, so my objection is not on religious grounds. What scare me is moral and ethical issues. If we create a human hybrid, it becomes a separate species, which may or may not be capable of reproduction. Not only might it be a viable new species, what happens if it is a sentient species? Do we have the right to enslave a sentient species as organ donors letting them die if it is an organ we need?
Furthermore if it is a sentient species, even a less intelligent one, what rights does it have? It is half-human, will it be afforded the basic human rights we say all humans are endowed by their creator with? If killing them isn’t an option because of intelligence and they are self propagating how will they integrate into our society? Will they be our equals or will they be our slaves?
This all might sound a bit Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, but it is also a very real possibility. We need to think before we act of the consequences far down the road. Even if we don’t just start harvesting organs or turning them into our slaves, another sentient species on this over populated planet can’t be a good thing.
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9 Responses to “On The Edge of a Genetic Razor”
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It is a bit creepy. Still, I can’t help but think of the possibility of centaurs. If that happened, I can see our food resources being strained even further. I mean, two stomachs to feed?
Sorry, that may be a bit silly of me regarding a serious subject. Do we have the right to mess with these things? Even if you don’t believe in God or a Creator, the world we live in has laws of its own that we’re supposed to live with but constantly thawrt. Hm…
Oh the silliness of it bothers me not. The fact that when this is index by Google we will have both now said centaurs in a post about genetics can’t be anything but good for the pagerank
I think we perfectly well have the right to play with genetics this way, the question though is should we do it just because we have the right to and how far do you take it. Mixing the genetics in a lab is one thing to see what we can do that might improve our species on a genetic level. We will one day want to move off this earth and frankly we will need to be adaptable as a species to do it.
Lets take this example back a little bit to the real world though. Not so long ago a girl got her ass kicked for basically running her mouth about her classmates on mySpace. She had the right to do it, but considering the consequences, she might have been better to say one thing, leave out names or just keep it to herself.
The right to do things simply doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences to go along with exercising them.
Just to give you a few book suggestions that deal with the ideal of genetics and adaptability Try reading Anne McAffrey’s Dragon Riders of Pern series and David Weber’s Honor Harrington series. Both directly confront that issue.
Sound like good reads. I’ll look for them.
We’ll see how it all pans out. But if this new species/race/whatever ends up being stronger than us and takes over the planet, I’m going to say “I told ya so,” to my friends who mocked during physics.
Yeah I will have a lot of I told you so moments to. For the Dragon Riders series start with “Dragon’s Dawn”, it was about the tenth one written, but it is the first one chronologically. You will want to start with “On Basilisk Station” for Honor Harrington, it is the first book of the series.
Cool. Now all I need is some cash to buy these books…
I blew all my cash on books last time, too. Is there a pattern developing?
yep I see the pattern Ryan, you are making comments like that to let Matt know you are just the kind of woman for him.
One of these day I am just going to send you a box of books so we can discuss them.
[...] On The Edge of a Genetic Razor (tags: Ethics Genetics religion Science) [...]
Alright. I’ll be waiting for it.
It would be interesting to see if they have done this…I don’t agree with it either, I don’t think life is one of those things we should be tampering with!
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