[Ethics] Political Science

Gavin Ayling throws down the gauntlet in response to a comment left On his blog.

To which I left the comment:

“I heard a little while back (sorry no sources- top of my head) that some Christian activists had registered a patent for human-mice chimera.

It was actually a well-calculated move to force the governments hand and stimulate a debate. It was borne of a concern that if we don’t debate these things now, we will slowly fall into these things as a society unaware.

I would guess that this one is probably someones thesis that has been passed on by word of mouth and become itself a sort of mutation.

Mice, rice whatever, I think scientific experiments need to have 2 things in place – a purpose and sanctity of human life.”

To which the Councillor replied:

“I agree that we need to have a debate! Inevitably, though, I don’t agree with the need for a purpose.

Much experimentation that has led to world-changing discoveries have no purpose. Trips to Titan, for example, have no purpose at all — they burn through lots of money and find out fascinating stuff, but there’s nothing out there we could remotely use.

I also am not sure about the “sanctity of human life”. Yes life is special, but human life is no more so. I can see massive societal problems were we able to make all children of similar [insert criteria here] and the idea of fully developing a chimera (which at the moment is not proposed or possible) should send a shudder down anyone’s spine…

But at the same time, we shouldn’t think that same-species genetic modification is significantly different to forced hybridisation or selective breeding (it isn’t) and we shouldn’t be afraid of things without good reason… Going faster than 50mph, remember, will suffocate you!”

I do not want to be drawn out into a lengthy debate and assume neither does Gavin, for which I have utmost respect. So instead I’m simply going to offer some examples:

What happens when science (research) does not have a purpose?

What happens when science doesn’t have a conscience (respecting sanctity of human life)?