On Sat, Jun 10, 2000 at 10:06:59AM -0400, Sarah Lawrence wrote:
>
> genetic engineering research. The idea of banning this worthwhile
> research is, I suggest, just as bad as the *old* eugenics programmes
> in which various groups were forcibly sterilised. People seem to think
> that regulating or banning this research is good, but that is an
> example of the very same thinking as that which resulted in the old
> eugenics programmes. Control of reproduction is again being taken out
> of the hands of the individual (who may want to make use of the
> research) and put in the hands of the state (who are regulating who
> may do what with whom, and what information can be available, and what
> new knowledge must (not) be created by companies wishing to work in
> the genetic engineering sphere).
Regulating what I am allowed to do with technology has some grounding,
especially when use of the technologies in question are potentially
dangerous to others (this is why I may not build a nuclear reactor in my
garden).
However, when someone tells me I am not allowed to work out *how*, there
is a problem.
Martin
-- -----[ Martin J. Ling ]-----[ http://www.nodezero.org.uk ]-----
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