[ExI] circumcision again

[spike]

>… On Behalf Of William Flynn Wallace
Subject: Re: [ExI] circumcision again

 

 

>… OK - now can we return to the question that started this?  >From Anders post I assume he thinks that any good done by genetic meddling is OK.  Is that it?  When you become aware of what was done to you by the gengineers you are just thankful because they created you as good as you could be with the genes you were given and those that they reprogrammed, were donated by someone else and so on, are OK too?

 

>…I remember from Heinlein's Friday ("My mother was a test tube") that being a hybrid of sorts and not 'natural' was looked down on.  You were a second class citizen.  Was Heinlein simply wrong about people's reactions to not being 'natural'?  bill w

 

 

Hi BillW,

 

OK then.  Leaving the DNA recombination to chance is also doing something.  A similar argument was made to me regarding my stance on circumcision: my blocking that was doing something.  Now my son must face that operation later, they said.  My volley: sure but if he does, he is the willing victim if he opts for it.

 

Regarding the act of facilitated genetic recombination, we again have all the moral dilemmas posed by the puzzling dichotomy of doing something vs doing nothing.  I don’t have the answer for that, other than to make the following claim: if the technology is available (it is now) to eliminate some known genetic diseases, then failing to do so is an action.  Doing nothing is doing something.  Assuming that natural is good is doing something.

 

We might speculate that it will likely eventually be the anti-Heinlein situation: those births left entirely to chance will likely be looked down upon.

 

I know that isn’t an answer, only an observation.

 

spike

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