H5N1 Virus, Atomic Weapons, Genetic Modification

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, sraj wrote:

> 1. Recognize that it is highly immoral to alter in an unnatural way
> the DNA of any life form on Plant Earth.

This is a highly normative position, just like Muslims saying that
Mohammed shouldn't be portrayed. Fine for them, but not for me at all.
You may hold to this Gaian philosophy but I think there is nothing at
all immoral about working with DNA, and I don't distinguish between
natural and unnatural mechanisms.

> Life forms on Earth relate to one another in complex ways. We do not
> have the complete blue prints.

It appears to me that you're holding to very platonic ideals of what
lifeforms are, that the interrelationships are static and not dynamic,
and that what once was will always be.

Not so in the least. Life adapts through selection pressure, drift,
and along clines. What is the blueprint for H. Sapien? How do you
account for the fact that 100% of Zambians are lactose intolerant
compared to 2% of Danes? Or that many sub-saharan Africans and New
World Indian populations lack the ASPM allele, which is a determinant
of brain size, while it is present in the majority of EurAsians?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16151010&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum

How are these natural variants any different than engineered variants?

> Since we are not the creators of the original life forms we have no
> authority to alter them.

Another loaded question. Anologue - since we are not the creators of
the original material of the earth, we have no authority to alter the
iron, coal, copper etc for our own use.

What you're arguing here is akin to religious dictates. You start with
many unsupported premises and build to the conclusion that you favor.

TangoMan