Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
world. Through artificial selection, for example, breeders have changed
the genomes of crops and livestock. Genetic engineering, being far more
precise than conventional methods of plant and animal breeding, changes
the genome far less and less often to achieve the desired results. These
novel technologies, one may claim, do not threaten to alter nature—
including plant and animal genomes—any more extensively than
medical, agricultural, and other technologies that have become familiar
and that we readily accept.
While there is something to each of these arguments, they cannot
gainsay that the concepts of nature and the natural carry enormous
moral importance and emotional force. According to the familiar per-
spective that may draw on the story of Eden, humankind depends on
nature but has “fallen” from it. Nature provides goods and services but
also sets limits.
15
Nature is the object of responsibility, respect, steward-
ship, love, rights, and reverence.
16
In the context of environmental ethics,
the natural refers primarily to biological communities or systems that
result from the spontaneous course of evolution. Of course, environ-
mentalists and others have questioned whether nature in this sense
applies to anything that any longer exists.
17
Books with titles like
The
Death of Nature
and
The End of Nature
reflect this concern.
18
Today, the concept of the natural continues to carry enormous moral
weight and emotional power. The more deeply technology penetrates
nature and “conquers” it, the stronger efforts become to preserve what
remains of our evolutionary and ecological heritage. Programs to protect
natural biodiversity, for example, have increased greatly at the time when
biotechnology has shown its potential to create genetic variability artifi-
cially. Calls to protect the human genome from manipulation, at least at
first impression, have much in common with arguments environmental-
ists and others present to protect what is “wild” from human interven-
tion, particularly from genetic engineering. The underlying idea may be
that nature is sacred—that its wonderful organization defies our imagi-
nation and thus seems to be divine. The prospect of extending longevity
as well as changing inherited characteristics adds weight to the metaphor
of playing God.
