Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The End of Nature
In
The New Genesis: Theology and the Genetic Revolution
, Ronald
Cole-Turner aptly states the problem of understanding the normative
force of the “natural” in the context of genetic engineering. He notes
that previous technologies, for example, in medicine and agriculture,
vastly altered nature, but only up to a point, because the genetic inher-
itance of species, beyond the arduous changes conferred by artificial
selection, lay beyond our reach. “Genetic inheritance,” Cole-Turner cor-
rectly observes, “came to signify nature itself—nature as
natus
, as that
which is born, inheriting inward principles that guide its development
and set limits, both physical and moral, on our technological alter-
ations.” Genetic engineering differs from other technologies because it is
directed at this last frontier or citadel that nature occupies. “Genetic
engineering will change nature,” Cole-Turner observes, “by altering the
genetic arrangement inside living things.”
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One may agree that genetic engineering will change nature, but one
can also offer at least three different kinds of arguments to suggest that
this may not be such a bad thing. First, appeals to nature—especially to
human nature—have had an unprepossessing, indeed, sometimes unsa-
vory, history. Those who have opposed certain practices have too often
and without further justification labeled them “unnatural.” The term
unnatural can be used thoughtlessly and indefensibly simply to denigrate
practices or activities that some people may find offensive. These invid-
ious uses of the term do not show, however, that there is no distinction
to be drawn between the natural and the artificial, or that no legitimate
normative force is to be associated with that distinction.
Second, one may invoke powerful philosophical arguments in the tra-
dition of Hume and G. E. Moore that deny the possibility of inferring
“ought” from “is,” that is, the impossibility of using statements about
nature to infer statements about morality. All kinds of horrible things,
alas, are completely natural, such as cancer. One might then concede
that the genome ties humanity to nature, but argue that nature itself
is of such dubious morality that it would be a good thing to sever that
connection.
Third, human beings have already changed nature pervasively; indeed,
the point of all technology may be to control and transform the natural
