By Timothy Kudo
Daily Bruin Staff
Years ago, a woman giving birth to get a matching bone marrow
donor for her dying child wasn’t thought of as a case of
genetic manipulation, but it brings up the same ethical issues as
those arising from recent breakthroughs.
As technology entered a brave new world with the cloning of the
sheep “Dolly,” society is becoming obsessed over what
to do about its newfound power. In an era where human cloning is in
a moratorium, scientists and theologians sat down Monday to discuss
how humans should be treated, as a means or as an end.
Dr. Ted Peters, a member of the Center for Theology and the
Natural Sciences and a principal investigator of the Human Genome
Project, likened the power of cloning and gene manipulation to the
myth of Prometheus who stole fire from the gods and brought it to
earth, but was punished by being chained to a rock and picked at by
vultures.
“There’s an anti-Promethean commandment that says,
“˜Thou shalt not play God,'” Peters said at a
discussion of ethical problems raised by genetic manipulation in
Franz Hall.
“Now, we in the modern world don’t believe in Zeus
or the Greek gods anymore, the culture is no longer religious in a
way that it used to be, so instead of Mount Olympus, the secret for
us in the modern world is nature,” he continued.
Peters examined many of the ethical issues that have arisen with
the increasing knowledge of genetics that is culminating as
scientists are on the eve of completely mapping the human genome,
the organization of genes on the human DNA strands.
Among these issues is what Peters called the
“commodization” of babies, in which families could
choose what traits their baby would have such as hair color,
sexuality or maybe even personality.
“Many gay and lesbian people say “˜I feel like
I’ve been this way all my life,’ and to think that
there might be something genetic there might seem
reasonable,” Peters said.
But, one of the audience members pointed out how dangerous such
knowledge could be.
Citing what many religious leaders have used as reasons against
cloning, Lisa Stenmark, a member of the Center for Theology, said,
“God loves diversity, but people really don’t.
“Once we find the gay gene no son or daughter will ever
come out gay again.”
Along with the manipulation of genes, issues about genetic
determinism in human behavior are also becoming more of an issue
since these are ethical problems raised even without genetic
manipulation.
“Imagine the image of a puppet where the DNA is the puppet
master,” Peter said. “Is it the case that who we are is
determined in a puppet-like fashion?”
Peter gave the example of a case in which a California resident
pleaded innocent on the grounds that his crimes were committed as a
result of alcoholism, a trait he said was genetic.
Though the man was acquitted, the court said in its ruling that
since he now knew about the condition, it was his responsibility to
get it under control.
But, Peters asked what should occur if all criminal acts are
genetically determined.
“If you believe in genetic determinism, then maybe we
ought to round them up now and put them in jail,” he
said.
Another participant in the discussion, Dr. Edward McCabe, who
works at UCLA Medical Center and has also worked with the Human
Genome Project, noted the importance that genetic technology could
have for treating diseases.
But, because of the problems in predicting what a person will be
like from a molecular level, McCabe noted how difficult those
treatments might be to come by.
“It really will move us to an era of predictive
medicine,” McCabe said. “In medicine, we don’t
always have to understand things at a complex level in order to
treat it.”
The speakers also noted that even if the genome project is
completed, there are numerous environmental factors that still
might play a role in determining characteristics.
“We ourselves, as humans, are also determiners,”
Peters said.