Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Hence, we gain some purchase on the second question: whether limits
on genetic manipulation are both advisable and possible. The Christian
social position I hope to advance responds to the first option with a
resounding confirmation, and to the second with a somewhat less assured
but nonetheless hopeful consent. That limits are possible as well as
morally desirable is a point I will take some time to develop toward the
end of my chapter, offering some historical and political evidence to back
up my theological and ethical exhortations.
A Caveat and Two Examples
My approach to human nature will, then, be more focused on human
relations and society than on any paradigm case of
the
individual human.
One ought not try to discover and enumerate the “natural” and morally
compelling characteristics of a human being as such, but rather, look at
the ethics of genetic control from the standpoint of the implications of
some uses, especially market uses, of genetic knowledge for society. I
do not deny in principle the validity of trying to discern what intrinsic
characteristics of human beings could be irreparably harmed or violated
through genetic alteration. Human physical characteristics or aspects
of consciousness, such as intelligence, freedom, and emotion, could be
adduced to assess the anticipated effects of genetic interference on what
humans have known to date, and to judge whether they constitute a
threat to the human as we know it.
The problem is that such approaches meet with difficulty or even
founder in trying to define clearly and persuasively exactly what char-
acteristics are essential to human nature, to predict both the immediate
and the long-term effects of genetic interventions, and to stipulate the
degree of risk required to constitute an actionable threat. Perhaps most
especially, the “normative human characteristics” approach finds it hard
to get past the fact that, while there are at least some recognizable param-
eters to “human nature,” especially the human body, one of human
nature's more salient elements is certainly creative freedom. The humanly
defining character of human freedom suggests to many that other human
characteristics might be controlled or “engineered,” at least in some
cases, to serve freedom's aims, and that the most compelling argument
