• Question: What are your views on how far we can go with genetic modification and drugs? Until we are like Gods?

    Asked by skellington to Darren, Deuan, Duncan, Lori-An, Michelle on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Darren Nesbeth

      Darren Nesbeth answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      We are already like Gods. Flying? Sending things to other planets? Mobile phones? All pretty God-like compared to the mid 1700s.

    • Photo: Lori-An Etherington

      Lori-An Etherington answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      This is a good question. The possible benefits of genetic engineering are huge and some areas I agree with such as using microorganisms to create new medicines or designing plants that might survive the conditions that exist in some 3rd world countries to help grow food. However I am uncomfortable with the possibility that genetic modification can be perhaps used one day to the extent of cloning humans or making designer babies.

    • Photo: Deuan Jones

      Deuan Jones answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      I think we always have a moral obligation as a whole society to think through the implications of scientific research. One problem in this is that most people don’t understand the science sufficiently to make informed decisions, and many of the scientists who do understand have a bias towards doing the research because they are in a competitive field and want to be the first to achieve something that will make them famous – like Craig Venter who led the group doing the ‘artificial bacteria’ work recently. One of the reasons that lots of scientists are getting into explaining their work to the public (non scientists like you, your parents, your granny etc…) is to try and help people understand more about science so they can be involved in decisions like this.

      For me I’m happy to work on anything that aims to alleviate human suffering so long as there’s nothing I can see wrong in the thing itself. So as a Christian I take my morality from the Bible and I try to apply that in my research – so for example I think it’s wrong to lie in research. But there’s nothing I can see telling me not to try and make artificial cells for example.

      Craig Venter was in the papers recently (I think he’s a bit of a pain to be honest) saying… ‘the trouble with gods, as the greek philosophers observed, is that they were not any morally better than humans, just more powerful’. Like Spiderman’s grandad tells him (in the 1st film I think) ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. But where I differ from Venter is that I believe in 1 God who I absolutely trust and I don’t believe ever even thinks of doing anything wrong. He’s someone who can make atoms out of nothing when he wants to – I don’t believe we’ll ever get anywhere near the powerful – we will never be gods. I also trust that even when humans make bad decisions, that he will stop us going too far and destroying ourselves.

      There you go, science, God and public explanation of science!

Comments

  • Photo: skellington

    skellington commented on :

    Controlling life and creating, making natural things do the abnormal. We are God like in the 1700’s sense but Ethicaly and Moraly?

  • Photo: johnterry

    johnterry commented on :

    I’m an Ubermensch.

  • Photo: Darren

    Darren commented on :

    I think everything we do takes ethics and morals into account. Just because something is proved technically possible, that doesn’t mean it gets done. Take nuclear weapons. We’ve managed to not use them in anger since WWII.

    There’s a world of things that can be done, but never will be because it’s ethically and morally wrong. In 2300 this conversation will be different, there will be new possibilities that are freaking people out – and today’s worries will seem quaint – like flying and mobile communication.