The Dalai Lama’s Views on Ethics and Genetic Technologies
In the excerpt “Ethics and the New Genetics” The Dalai Lama, also known as Tenzin Gyatso, presents to use the new arising discovery that scientists made in genetic technologies and how advanced they are becoming. He discusses how scientists are talking about being able to change the genetic make-up in produce to help those who cannot or have the advantage of having food. Another thing he brings up is how the scientists also discovered two different types of cloning.
One type of cloning is therapeutic and the other is reproductive. In the Dalai Lama’s excerpt he stated that there is right time and place for when we should use these technological and genetic advances. But at the same time if we use these technological and genetic advances in the wrong way or at the wrong time it can end up being a long term consequence for our present and future society.
As the Dalai Lama stated we should these technological and genetics advances only when it is to benefit people as human beings. An example he discussed was for when the talk of changing the gene factor in produce should only be used to help feed the world, not for solely making the discovery of changing the shelf life of apples or having wheat and other grains immune to pests when growing in the field. These types of genetic changes should only be used to benefit the human race.
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By actively manipulating the gene, we are on the cusp of forcing as unnaturally quick rate of change in animals and plants as well as our own species” ( Dalai Lama, 77) Only realizing that there are a morally right reasons to do that, at the same time it could be endangering the future as Dalai Lama stated and in a way that is what is not be considered. The Dalai Lama did say however though that cloning is okay if we are using it to save lives, but not for the purpose of trying to have the perfect child for you or anyone else.
Therapeutic cloning is the type of cloning that is meant to make a perfect child, which is wrong in almost every way. Though it is a tragedy for those families that cannot have let’s say a normal child or even have a child it is still not morally right to go and technology work on another child to give that family a child of their own. Reproductive cloning is simply creating an identical copy of an already born child and that is normal in today’s society because a lot of people have twins.
But it is not normal for a family that cannot have a child to go and make a copy of another child, though as the Dalai Lama stated it may be an identical body, but there will be two different consciousnesses and they will still die. Overall, technological and genetic advances should only be solely used for the benefit for the human beings and the human benefit, not for as Dalai Lama mentioned commercial benefits.
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The Dalai Lama’s Views on Ethics and Genetic Technologies. (2017, Mar 24). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/dalai-lama/
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