Gengineering Ethics
Jun. 4th, 2021 03:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithHere's an article about gengineering ethics. It raises some interesting points.
Bear in mind that my standards are a lot higher than here, because I've seen a lot of shit that can go wrong when people fuck up with gengineering.
* Mixing human/animal genes is extremely risky and a bad idea.
-- This greatly increases the opportunity for diseases to jump across species, because you've built them a damn bridge.
-- People like slaves and come up with all kinds of excuses why it's okay this time, despite always ending in disaster. Looking different just gives them an excuse to repeat another remedial history lesson in why this is a bad idea.
-- It also creates an opportunity to spawn creatures who look animal but have humanish awareness, or look human but don't have the same mental capacity. Both consistently cause problems.
-- So for example, humanized mice are risky at best and unethical at worst.
-- Uplift can be an honorable thing to do, but it is abused far more often than done responsibly. Use extreme caution. It is better to uplift within a genome by choosing best options or mechanically altering genes to explore new possibilities, than by splicing in foreign genes.
* Modification of humans in general is very fraught.
-- Remember that some people's religion, politics, philosophy, etc. prohibit such things. These are popular inspirations for war. Let's not make more excuses for that, we have enough already.
-- However, it is your body and you can do what you want with it. Gengineering is very popular for both medicinal and artistic purposes.
-- And oh well, humans have banged their way around the hominid family tree for all of history, carrying remnants of at least 4 other branches. The love of diversity is just as deeply rooted as the foaming xenophobia.
* Any tampering with the genes of edible or medicinal lifeforms requires extremely careful testing to prove safety and accuracy.
-- Gengineering might change things like nutritional value or effectiveness.
-- Variant proteins or other components may create new allergens, or hide a known allergen in a formerly safe source. This is extremely risky when working with allergenic contributors, and highly risky with transgenics in general.
-- It's not okay to torment or kill people by poisoning them with allergens in claimed-to-be-safe materials.
* Don't encode contagious infertility or fertility. If either jumps beyond its intended application, the results can be dire.
-- Also don't wipe out species on purpose. That is like discarding airplane parts because you don't know what they do.
* Don't gengineer things that can get loose and wreak havoc.
-- Never risk contaminating your source stock. If something goes wrong you're really screwed.
-- You're on an asteroid? Go nuts, space is your firewall.
-- You're on a planet with a biosphere? Don't gengineer mobile lifeforms or wind-pollinated ones.
-- You can gengineer mobile lifeforms when surrounded by inimical habitat, e.g. frankenfish in an inland pool farm.
* Don't use other people as your unwilling guinea pigs. You must follow ethical standards to avoid repeating historic offenses.
-- All gengineered products must be labeled as such.
-- There must always be a non-gengineered alternative at equal or less cost available to everyone.
-- Never force people to use or otherwise interact with gengineered products. They should have free choice. If your products are really good, people will want them.
* Don't be a dick. You are representing Science. You don't want to make people hate or fear it. That way lies doom and disaster.
Because this world's gengineers are violating ethical standards all over the place, I have concluded that gengineering as a field is irresponsible and unsupportable here. I might choose to consider an individual application as valid, but the general behavior is reprehensible and dangerous. I have ethical, business, safety, and other practical reasons for frowning on this nonsense.
Bear in mind that my standards are a lot higher than here, because I've seen a lot of shit that can go wrong when people fuck up with gengineering.
* Mixing human/animal genes is extremely risky and a bad idea.
-- This greatly increases the opportunity for diseases to jump across species, because you've built them a damn bridge.
-- People like slaves and come up with all kinds of excuses why it's okay this time, despite always ending in disaster. Looking different just gives them an excuse to repeat another remedial history lesson in why this is a bad idea.
-- It also creates an opportunity to spawn creatures who look animal but have humanish awareness, or look human but don't have the same mental capacity. Both consistently cause problems.
-- So for example, humanized mice are risky at best and unethical at worst.
-- Uplift can be an honorable thing to do, but it is abused far more often than done responsibly. Use extreme caution. It is better to uplift within a genome by choosing best options or mechanically altering genes to explore new possibilities, than by splicing in foreign genes.
* Modification of humans in general is very fraught.
-- Remember that some people's religion, politics, philosophy, etc. prohibit such things. These are popular inspirations for war. Let's not make more excuses for that, we have enough already.
-- However, it is your body and you can do what you want with it. Gengineering is very popular for both medicinal and artistic purposes.
-- And oh well, humans have banged their way around the hominid family tree for all of history, carrying remnants of at least 4 other branches. The love of diversity is just as deeply rooted as the foaming xenophobia.
* Any tampering with the genes of edible or medicinal lifeforms requires extremely careful testing to prove safety and accuracy.
-- Gengineering might change things like nutritional value or effectiveness.
-- Variant proteins or other components may create new allergens, or hide a known allergen in a formerly safe source. This is extremely risky when working with allergenic contributors, and highly risky with transgenics in general.
-- It's not okay to torment or kill people by poisoning them with allergens in claimed-to-be-safe materials.
* Don't encode contagious infertility or fertility. If either jumps beyond its intended application, the results can be dire.
-- Also don't wipe out species on purpose. That is like discarding airplane parts because you don't know what they do.
* Don't gengineer things that can get loose and wreak havoc.
-- Never risk contaminating your source stock. If something goes wrong you're really screwed.
-- You're on an asteroid? Go nuts, space is your firewall.
-- You're on a planet with a biosphere? Don't gengineer mobile lifeforms or wind-pollinated ones.
-- You can gengineer mobile lifeforms when surrounded by inimical habitat, e.g. frankenfish in an inland pool farm.
* Don't use other people as your unwilling guinea pigs. You must follow ethical standards to avoid repeating historic offenses.
-- All gengineered products must be labeled as such.
-- There must always be a non-gengineered alternative at equal or less cost available to everyone.
-- Never force people to use or otherwise interact with gengineered products. They should have free choice. If your products are really good, people will want them.
* Don't be a dick. You are representing Science. You don't want to make people hate or fear it. That way lies doom and disaster.
Because this world's gengineers are violating ethical standards all over the place, I have concluded that gengineering as a field is irresponsible and unsupportable here. I might choose to consider an individual application as valid, but the general behavior is reprehensible and dangerous. I have ethical, business, safety, and other practical reasons for frowning on this nonsense.
