From Genetics, to Ethics:

As a spectator of the current battle between Ethics and Genetics, I feel there is an undo amount of antagonism from both sides towards each other, almost as if they resented the existence of the other, and how it has caused it to rethink and re-explore topics that are uncomfortable, as such, and as a writer for Genetics I am writing a letter to Ethics:

Like all relationships that are starting there are bound to be some growing pains, some adaptations, and some disagreements. But even so, we are both determined to make our relationship work, if not for our individual interests, for the general interest of our offspring: bioethics.

You come from a world of theory, a world of politics, a world that can be thought out and finished within your mind, one that has had generations upon generations of some of the greatest thinkers pouring their lives, their intellect, and their legacy into it. My world is one that is just now budding, where what we knew a decade ago is outdated, where we are pushing the technology so that we can know what is and isn’t a valid hypothesis. Everything is new, we don’t even have an older generation to look to, we are all there is to it.

We wouldn’t want to make a child now, not while we are so young, while we have so little history, so many flaws, and so many things to discover. We would not limit ourselves with offspring, for our world is so vast, and so unexplored, yet, intersectional fields aren’t ones you chose to have, they are imposed out of necessity for the good of all of us.

So here we are.

As far as genetics is concerned we are at the bleeding edge of humanity, we now have the ability, not just the dream, or the fantasy, but the literal technical capacity to modify our species, individually, en masse, however we may please. This to us is a fascinating idea, and one fraught with pitfalls, that scares us to the very core of our being.

A generation ago everyone thought the world was going to end in an atomic cloud (actually the nuclear winter would be the downfall of most of us), now those of us in genetics see the end of our species in what is best described as giving in to vanity.

There are those of us who have less scruples and more love for the material, those who would accidentally poison the well of humanity because they wish to be richer, more famous, or simply they do not care.

It is knowing these people exist that I am writing to you, Ethics.

It is because these people don’t care about you, that we must collaborate, that our offspring bioethics must reign.

And finally it is because I know you, Ethics, that I must intercede, for you do not know where the future is taking us, and you are leading our offspring down a conservative road that will only give wings to those you wish to stop, and only prevent me from actually fixing the things I have come here to fix.

Let me do my work, let me solve the problems that can be solved. You are focusing on the cosmetic issues, on those that you think look bad, that you haven’t yet contemplated, while you do so I patiently await for permission to work. Meanwhile we aren’t advancing, the chance that something catastrophic happens keeps increasing, and we are just passing the time.

This is stunting everyone who is aligned with you, and you do not seem to care, as your precaution principle trumps everything else. So I am here to tell you the apocalypse will happen, and it will be on your watch. Not for lack of trying to stop it, but because you have strangled us now, and only looked at us.

I’m not asking for free reign, far from it, I am asking to work together. To take each other into account, to learn from each other, and to be friends. For if we are not, we are lost.