Over at The Corner, Daniel Foster wonders whether a tremendous recent breakthrough in creating pluripotent stem cells from normal body cells, could end the culture war battle over biotechnology. Alas, not a chance.
As I pointed out in a longer analysis of this story over at Secondhand Smoke: Even if this advance did EVERYTHING that scientists wanted from ESCR, it won’t stop many from wanting to experiment on nascent human life. Indeed, some would look at the advance, shrug, and keep on trying to clone human embryos.
It is important to understand that stem cell advances are not the end game. As I wrote in NRO last week, embryonic stem cell research is merely the opening stanza of a much longer symphony that ultimately seeks to open the door to Brave New World technologies such as genetic engineering and human enhancement, all of which require cloning and/or experimenting on embryos to perfect.
So, will this end the war? Nope. Will it help those of us who want to convince Main Street of the need to enact responsible regulations to prevent Brave New World? You betcha.
September 30th, 2010 | 4:18 pm
I agree with that stem cell research based on ‘harvesting’ stem cells from adults or from placental material will not satisfy the trajectory that certain elements of western culture and the scientific community are on.
They have formed the spin that those who reject embryonic stem cell research are heartless people who worry about ‘embryos’ but not human beings [notice their dichotomy] in need of such research. They completely eclipse our desire for stem cell research that does not involved embryonic cells because they really want to make us out to be denizens of the Dark Ages or fans of those who opposed Galileo. They do not want the truth to come out that what they are doing is cannibalizing human beings for the sake of other human beings.
However, the trajectory seems to be even more ominous. You use the image of the Brave New World. Perhaps that is too mild an image from literature. How about the image of the ‘two forms of the human race’ from Wells’ “Time Machine”. We seem to be in an express lane towards a split in the human family, and the human family tree. One main trunk will continue as it has from the beginning, ‘au natural’, recognizing that we are creatures, even if the highest of God’s creatures on earth. The other main trunk, will be ‘manufactured’. One branch will be created ‘in the image of God’ while the other, rejecting this status, seeks to create themselves in their own image.
Who would ever think that Saint Augustine’s Two Cities could ever be so incarnated as they are on the verge of doing at this point in time.
The ever present desire to do anything and everything possible, without limits, that has been present from the beginning in human history [Genesis 3] is about to take on a whole new meaning.
Putting it simply, ‘just because we can does not mean that we should’.
September 30th, 2010 | 7:52 pm
As Heidegger said, the nature of technology is not technological; it is a way of being or relating to Being. Technology “enframes” the world and drastically alters our relationship to it — perhaps irrevocably. While Heidegger could be accused of romanticizing the jug and the cottage and other premodern technologies, the threat of severe alienation from Being posed by human genetic manipulation is quite real.
September 30th, 2010 | 9:10 pm
This advance raises a variety of ethical and legal concerns, even though it might reduce reliance on embryonic stem cells in the long run. I write more about the legal and ethical issues here: http://theconsternationofphilosophy.blogspot.com/
October 1st, 2010 | 4:04 pm
Aldus Huxley and H.G. Wells were clever fellows, but science fiction and science seldom do more than wave to each other from passing cars. (And I say this as a science fiction fan.) Assuming that a significant number of people are taking “Brave New World” as a blueprint and roadmap seems… excessive.
That’s not to minimize the ethical concerns, which are profound and legitimate. But this comes awfully close to demonizing one’s opponents…
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