Biotechnology and the Human Good

ONE: The Rapidly Changing World of Biotechnology

C H A P T E R O N E The Rapidly Changing World of Biotechnology We reduce things to mere Nature in order that we may ‘‘conquer’’ them. We are always conquering Nature, because ‘‘Nature’’ is the name for what we have, to some extent, conquered. The price of conquest is to treat a thing as mere Nature. . . . As long as this process stops short of the final stage, we may well hold that the gain outweighs the loss. But as soon as we take the final step of reducing our own species to the level of mere Nature, the whole process is stultified, for this time the being who stood to gain and the being who has been sacrificed are one and the same. —C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man TECHNOLOGY is an integral part of human life, from the simplest tools made from plants and stones to our digital computers, cardiac pacemakers, pharmaceuticals, and the ubiquitous media of communication and transportation. Human beings are toolmakers; we are Homo faber. Although other animals demonstrate the ability to use elements of their environments as simple tools, such as otters using stones to open the shells of mollusks, humankind is marked by its whole-scale commitment to develop and use new tools. It is hard for human beings to even image a world without the use of tools of some kind. Further, it is doubtful that as a species Homo sapiens would survive without tools, without technology. Biotechnology is a set of technologies specifically aimed at manipulating living things, including human beings themselves, arguably for the common good. Some of the most amazing tools of the past fifty years have appeared in the sphere of medical biotechnology— 2 C H A P T E R O N E antibiotics, psychopharmaceuticals and other drugs, and recombinant technologies that produce hormones or clotting factors (e.g., insulin, erythropoeitin, or Factor VIII for hemophiliacs), gene manipulation that produces disease or pest resistance in crops, and engineered drugs to treat cancer (e.g., imatinib mesylate, or Gleevec, for chronic myelogenous leukemia, or rituximab for the treatment of lymphoma and an increasing number of autoimmune diseases). For the purposes of our discussion, biotechnology also includes tools that directly interact with the systems of the body for the purposes of diagnosis, health restoration , and disability amelioration. This category of biotechnologies includes organ and blood cell transplantation, pacemakers, new forms of orthopedic appliances, genetic testing and the first forays into gene therapy, neural implants to treat Parkinson’s disease or depression, and a whole host of tools and treatments now common in medical practice. Many of these advances have been welcomed enthusiastically, whereas others have been greeted with skepticism or open hostility (e.g., genetically modified food). Increasingly, discussions about the means of biotechnology have joined controversies about its ends. Witness the heated debate about embryonic stem cell research, or about human cloning with a goal of developing new treatments for serious diseases like Parkinson’s disease, juvenile diabetes, and a host of others. Increasingly, biotechnologies are being created and used not for therapeutic ends but for the purpose of ‘‘enhancing’’ mental or athletic function or altering physical appearance.1 Breast implants and other cosmetic surgery, anabolic steroids and erythropoeitin, botulinum toxin (Botox), methylphenydate (Ritalin), and SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) antidepressants (e.g., Paxil, Prozac, and Celexa ) are being used not for the purpose of healing or restoring but in the hope of making us ‘‘better than well.’’2 In 2004, just under $12.5 billion was spent in the United States on cosmetic procedures (surgery and nonsurgical such as Botox injections), a value far greater than ten times that committed to research for a cure or more effective treatments for malaria, still one of the world’s major killers.3 New agents that are being developed to treat memory impairment in dementing diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease are expected to have a huge market among The Rapidly Changing World of Biotechnology 3 those who simply want to improve their memory for socially competitive reasons.4 Revisiting Eugenics One of the most remarkable biotechnology projects of the past fifteen years has been the discovery of the human genetic code, in the Human Genome Project (HGP). Yet much has been written about the potential sources of harm and benefit in this new knowledge about the code of life. Will we have to again...