Genetic Engineering - November 2004

From Odd Perspectives:

The other day I was just talking to one of my colleagues in school over lunch. What started off as mundane complaining about our students became one of the most interesting topics I have touched on for a while - Genetic Engineering.

Before I click somewhere else on this page in search of something less boring, let me just assure you that no, I'm not going to start a long discourse on the rights and wrongs of genetic modification. And I'm not a science person, so be assured.

Anyway, we were complaining about some of our female students, how they refuse to come to school without makeup. We figured that it is their lack of a healthy self-image that they possess such an obsession about not letting ANYONE see them without a powdered nose. "Well, for them," we said, "makeup not longer serves the purpose of enhancing beauty, but is substituting it."

I related how my honeymoon trip to Thailand has led me NOT to believe the beauty I see in women on the streets there. Imagine, I saw a gorgeous babe catwalking down the street in Bangkok. Only when I saw up close did I notice she's not a she, but actually a 'he'. It was a shock then, but it made me question what makeup and cosmetic surgery can do.

What is your perception of beauty? Is there anything beautiful anymore? What if one say you realise that all you deemed pretty was actually cosmetically sculpted?

But hey, what's wrong with cosmetic surgery? It's just a more expensive, but also more permanent form of makeup, right? Besides, EVERYONE's doing it these days. Look on TV! Extreme makeover, The Swan, even the local "Mei Li Bai Fen Bai"! What's the problem, Matthew? Conservative? Old-fashioned?

Well, the arguments here are sound. But consider this: if you can operate on your body to change your appearance, to enhance your performance, to raise your self-esteem, to improve your self-image, to make things better, slimer, broader, sharper, etc etc, then what's wrong with genetic engineering??

Afterall, the only difference is that one is done after you're born, the other before, right?

But that's wrong! That's playing God! That's abusing science! That's disrupting the order of nature! That's an improved form of cosmetic surgery? I mean, what's the difference, in principle?

Let's go back to the beginning. If genetic engineering is playing God, changing and deciding on behalf of God, what we should not have right over, then what makes cosmetic surgery any less wrong? Aren't we saying, "Look God, I'm not happy with this nose. Can I change it? I mean, I have the money, they have the science. It's legal and available, so that means you have made a way out for me, which means a 'Yes'? Right God? Right, thank you Lord!"

Now if you see my point, cosmetic surgery is not as innocent as it seems. It's a trivial way of playing God.

And well, if changing our outward appearance permanently is playing God, then what about using makeup to change our outward appearance temporarily?

Think about it...
=)

Matthew - November 2004

I think the crucial difference is enhancement versus determination. if not enhancement, then why do we bother to dress well, even? The slippery-slope idea of enhancement can be extended all the way down. There's no paranoia for me here though.. haha.. I have become something of a clotheshorse in the past year. *winks*

as a biologist, and seeing the things that genetic engineering makes possible, I am both excited and scared. Genetically engineered bacteria are already extant and have been, and in use, for decades. Do we accept their use? For the most part, yes. Would you and I be willing to do without decontaminated soils, oil-polluted oceans and cheap animal feed? Hm... not a particularly strong agreement, even from me. Let's take it a step closer to home. How about genetically engineered plants? We all pay less for our vegetables simply because they have been genetically engineered to be pest-resistant, frost-resistant and more succulent; to ripen faster on the stalk and carry more nutritional value. Rice can and has had an entire biochemical pathway knocked-in for the production of Vitamin A; this rice saves the lives of millions in poorer countries who would not otherwise be able to avoid Vitamin A deficiency. Would you do without these?

One step the closer - genetically engineered animals. Salmon, cows, mice, cats and sheep. Probably, at this point, many of us would begin to shake our heads in emphatic denial. No? What's the difference between animals and plants? The difference, may I postulate, is the ability to feel and to experience emotions, ie the indwelling of what some might term a 'soul'. We become uncomfortable when we imagine that the subject of our manipulations may actually have feelings about it, and yet no choice in the matter. This is piercingly close to the state of a human embryo if it were to undergo genetic manipulation. Cosmetic enhancements like makeup and plastic surgery are done at the choice and with the consent of the individual; they merely enhance what is already present and do not change the genetic constituents of the person. I am still who and what I am, before I take off my makeup. Thus, I am NOT a backer of genetic engineering, in the sense of tinkering with a human before birth. ie transforming the entire organism. The body is the seat of the soul and the temple of the Holy Spirit, and should NOT be tinkered with lightly.

Huiming - November 2004