Scientific knowledge is like a fine scent. Once exposed to the open air, it cannot be put back in the bottle. There is no way of “unknowing” such terrible science like nuclear fission which led to atomic weaponry. Nor it seems is there any method to put back in the bottle the genetics discoveries that have led to the cloning of animals.
Whatever the truth behind the claim that a genetically cloned child has already been born healthy, the fact is that genetic scientists are pushing the envelope hard and it is likely to be sooner, rather than later, that they are going to “make” a human being, in the exact likeness of another. For most people, the reason this development boggles the imagination is that it seems to open up alarming and apparently infinite opportunities for man to play with the basic building blocks of life.
The growth of genetics has been insidious. It began harmlessly enough with the plants. Scientists took the ancient lore of gardeners analyzed and synthesized a process which took decades, then used their newfound knowledge to create more fruitful faster-growing strains of grains, resistant to extremes of weather. Few at the time questioned this benefit by which the lives of millions have been transformed.
Genetic research in animals was initially concerned with the improvement of breeding stock but, very early on, an important byproduct became the growing of replacement organs, which we were told would lead to a revolution in the treatment of medical conditions. The curing of disease has always carried with it a dangerous germ to infect our imaginations. If you can cure a disease which once would have led to death, then you have, at least for that occasion, defeated death. Now, driven by American wealth and anxiety, the concept of medicine as a whole has migrated from cure and the easing of suffering to the outright prevention of death.
This is typified by the cryogenics movement, in which people with fatal conditions were frozen after death, against the day when a cure can be found and they can be unfrozen and treated. This obscene idea, which stands Nature on its head, now lies at the heart of what medical science is trying to do.
Perhaps one way to get a handle on what could happen to the genetic manipulation of human kind is to remember what has occurred with genetically modified plants. There, big business has built seeds that require the purchase of its special fertilizers to grow into sterile plants, which will not yield seed for the next harvest. Such seed must be purchased afresh from their laboratories.
Commercial considerations are, therefore, seeking to shape the world of agriculture. Will such considerations be far behind the 'manufacturing' of human beings? Already some companies have sought to patent elements of the human genetic code. The world is alarmed enough about the potentially disastrous implications of genetically modified seeds. Can we seriously embark upon the same process with human beings? It is time that everyone, including those who hope to make vast fortunes out of human genetics, sat down and thought long and hard about where this startling new technology is leading.
