|
 Provocations
Michael
LaBossiere
Number
Two: Is Biomimicry Bad
Biomicry,
a term made popular by Janine Benyus, refers to the field of finding
solutions to problems by mimicking aspects of nature. Some types
of biomimicry are entirely uncontroversial. For example, the very
useful invention Velcro was inspired by burrs sticking to a dog.
Other types of biomimicry raise serious moral questions. For example,
scientists who work for Nexia have genetically modified goats so
that they will produce spider silk in their milk. The company hopes
to be able gather the liquid silk and then, with the technological
help of the U.S. Army, weave the silk into threads for a variety
of applications. Other types of biomimicry involve similar types
of genetic modifications and it is these cases that raise the most
serious moral concerns.
The
products of such biomimicry have the potential to do a great deal
of good. For example, it is hoped that the artificial spider silk
threads could be used in a process by which replacement human ligaments
could be grown. It can, of course, be argued that such potential
benefits (not to mention the potential profits) provide a moral
(or at least a monetary) justification for such genetic modifications.
After all, the argument might go, who could be opposed to something
that could help injured people?
Despite
the potential benefits, such modifications do raise serious moral
concerns. One concern is both moral and pragmatic: such modifications
might pose a danger. While it is rather unlikely that any science
fiction style monsters will be spawned by such experiments and run
amok, such genetic modifications could create organisms that pose
risks to humans. For example, natural bacteria are bad enough and
modified bacteria could be a very serious medical risk. Because
of such potential dangers, it might be wise to heed the advice of
Harvard biologist Ruth Hubbard and proceed very carefully in such
matters. After all, aside from the financially based desire to register
patents first, there seems to be no compelling need to rush in such
matters when so much is at stake.
A
second concern is that it might be wrong to exploit organisms by
transforming them into living factories. It can be countered that
humans already use animals as living factories (harvesting their
milk and eggs, for example) and that animals have been modified
by selective breeding for centuries. Thus, those who have made use
of this sort of biomimicry have done nothing worse than the farmers
who selectively bred cows to produce more milk. Some, like philosopher
Peter Singer, might reply to this by arguing that such exploitation
is morally wrong whether it involves biomimicry or not. Such arguments
are typically made on utilitarian grounds: the suffering of the
animals morally outweighs the benefits that humans receive from
exploiting them. Thus, those who have made use of this sort of biomimicry
have done something just as bad as the farmers who selectively bred
cows to produce more milk.
While
the morality of the general exploitation of animals cannot be settled
here, it does seem that biomimicry involving genetic modifications
involves a moral step beyond existing practices of animal exploitation.
It is one thing, perhaps a bad thing, to exploit goats for their
milk and meat. It is quite another to alter their fundamental nature
so that they produce spider silk. While the "natural law"
of "tooth and claw" might justify eating goats or milking
them (the law of "stool and bucket?"), it does seem difficult
to justify modifying them.
A
third and final concern focuses more on humanity than on the potential
targets of modification. While it is clear that organisms subjected
to such modifications will be changed, it also seems likely that
humanity will be altered as well. By this I do not mean that humans
will modify themselves (but that fate, no doubt, awaits us like
a mugger in the dark alley of the future). Rather, I mean that by
coming to regard living creatures not only as commodities but as
commodities to be freely altered to suit our whims we will have
lost yet another fragment of our humanity. And, of course, these
days we have so little to spare.
Provocations
will next be updated early October 2002
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