Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering
Human Genome Project
 Video 1
 Video 2
Eugenics
 Video 1
A Glimpse of Things to Come, Lee Silver
2010
 Embryonic manipulation and selection
o Examples:
 Choosing sex
 Combining chromosomes of same
sex couples
2050
 Genetic enhancement
2350
 Transhumanism
o Gattaca Argument
o Speciation based on social
stratification.
o GenRich vs. Naturals
Huxley and Brave New World
Wikipedia: Brave New World, written in 1932,
was first intended as a dystopian novel by Aldous
Huxley. Set in London in the 26th century, the novel
anticipates developments in reproductive
technology, eugenics and hypnopædia that
combine to change society. The world it describes
could in fact also be a utopia, albeit an ironic one:
Humanity is carefree, healthy, and technologically
advanced. Warfare and poverty have been
eliminated, and everyone is permanently happy.
The irony is, however, that all of these things have
been achieved by eliminating many things —
family, cultural diversity, art, literature, science,
religion, and philosophy. It is also a hedonistic
society, focused on deriving pleasure from
promiscuous sex and drugs.
Silver’s Critique
 Huxley’s world is coming, but
reproductive control will not be in the
hands of government or corporations,
but rather of individuals.
Preventing a Brave New World, Leon
Kass
Objections to human cloning
The universal repugnance of cloning
 cf. incest, cannibalism
 Failure rate causes unnecessary
deaths of embryos.
 Crises of individuality and identity
 Handmade humans won’t have same
moral significance.
 The meaning of procreation
o giving up control
Kass call for a total ban on both
 embryonic human cloning
 reproductive human cloning
 Implications
o Cloned Kittens
The Case Against Perfection, Michael J.
Sandel
NPR Interview
Science Friday: Engineering Better Humans
Varieties of Genetic Enhancements:
 Muscles
 Memory
 Height
In each of these cases significant advances
in treatment of diseases also reveal the
potential to enhance normal people.
 Sexual Selection
In vitro methods used to screen for genetic
diseases can also be used to select the sex
of a child.
Problems
The problem of agency
 Do/will we value the accomplishments of
enhanced people less?
Eroding our appreciation of the “giftedness
of life”
Silver argues that those who believe in
genetic enhancement think it is unfair that
some people are born with greater natural
gifts than others, and they value effort over
natural gifts.
However, according to Sandel, an
“openness to the unbidden” is what drives
our appreciation for natural gifts, and this
quality is essential to the parent/child
relation. If parents can design their
children, they will have expectations of them
that are appropriate to that relationship.
Other examples of the triumph of willfulness
over giftedness
 Sports crazed parents.
 Over diagnosis of ADHD
 James Watson and the curing of
stupidity.
 Egg and sperm
o California Cryobank
 Cryobank is market driven, but
Sandel believes it is just as
morally suspect as sperm banks
with an explicit eugenics
mission.
Will genetic enhancement erode sympathy
for and solidarity with less-advantaged
members of society.
o Genetic discrimination in insurance.
Trespass, Claire Hope Cummings
Cummings argues here that recombinant
DNA technology is still very poorly
understood, and that the time line for
introducing it was drastically accelerated by
scientists and agribusiness corporations
agreeing to a propaganda campaign.
Genetically Modified Food: Panacea or
Posion?
Main issues:
 Unpredictability of transgenic crops
 Accelerated rate of introduction
 Unhealthy relation between science and
industry
Cummings notion of “trespass”
p. 298
“Genetic engineering is a trespass on the
public commons. This is because of the
way transgenics are designed and the way
‘the molecular vision’ has been pursued.
This vision required that science be
compromised to the point where it would
overcome the complex boundary conditions
that form the very foundation of life. It had
to have the hubris to break the species
barriers and place itself directly in the path
of evolution, severing organisms from their
hereditary lineage. And it requires the use
of stealth and violence to invade the cell
wall, and the implanting of transgenic life
forms into an involuntary participant with
organisms that are especially designed to
overcome all resistance to this rude
intrusion.”
Genetic Engineering and the Concept of the
Natural, Mark Sagoff
The “natural” fetish
Consumers believe that products extracted
directly from plants are somehow superior
to those that are manufactured. In fact,
however natural products are often
 chemically identical to synthetic
products
 more contaminated than synthetic
products
 do more damage to the environment to
extract than synthetic products
The organic food business
Organic foods are no longer properly
associated with small, locally grown
products. The organic reformers of the 60’s
are now running the organic food divisions
of General Mills and Pillsbury.
New Yorker Review: “Paradise Sold”
Basic problem for marketers: How can
GMO’s be marketed as natural products?
Basic strategy:
 Resist labeling of GMO’s.
 Stress that what we currently think of as
natural foods is the product of
thousands of years of selective
breeding.
Four Concepts of the Natural
 Everything in the universe
o opposed to supernatural
 God’s creations
o sacred, opposed to profane or
immoral
 Independent of human influence
o opposed to artificial
 Authentic or true to itself
o opposed to superficial or illusory
Sagoff Analysis:
The food industry markets it’s products as
natural in the last three senses, but
wishes to be regulated only in the first
sense.
Example: Monsanto claims that it’s
products are generated by “nature’s own
methods.”
What is the craving for the natural all
about?
 Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale
 William Burroughs Naked Lunch
 Sagoff argues that we do not want the
food we eat to be so thoroughly known.
The more control we have over nature,
the less meaningful it becomes to us.
 This is a general problem with scientific
knowledge.
Google Video on Food Production and
Globalization: Fast Food World