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From: honig@ics.uci.edu (David Honig)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: The Ethics of Species Engineering ( WAS: Re: Human/Chimp Hybrids?)
Keywords: ethics
Message-ID: <270A6B70.15884@ics.uci.edu>
Date: 3 Oct 90 22:51:28 GMT
References: <4904@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu> <1990Sep23.163322.28379@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> <4909@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu>
Reply-To: honig@ics.uci.edu (David Honig)
Organization: UC Irvine Department of ICS
Lines: 21

In article <4909@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu> drbob@hpuxa.ircc.ohio-state.edu (Robert H. Woodman) writes:
>    One of the things that I have noticed about scientists is that they
>are perceived by the public as being so focused on the science that they
>ignore any ethical problems.  

The ethical problems arise when generals, politicians, and unelected
policymakers *employ* the knowledge that scientists find.  Finding
that chimps and humans can breed, and measuring the properties of the
resulting creature, is different from, e.g., proposing to raise a
breed of slaves.  And I agree with others that such a hybrid would
be very interesting.

Uranium fissions; some organophosphates irreversibly bind
acetylcholinesterase.  These are facts.  What you do with them is
subject to moral evaluation, but discovering them is not.


-- 
David A. Honig
``Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.''
---Ghandi