From Pyramids to Stem Cells
Looking at the CT scans of the 3,300-year-old pharaoh, Tutankhamun, you get this eerie feeling in the bottom of your stomach, like looking at your own thousands of years old reflection in the mirror of time. The great Egyptian civilization has kept us mystified through centuries and often even more than the unknown wilderness of the cosmos. They have left us with puzzles that appear to possess a question mark of infinity and make us wonder if that oasis of intelligence was lured there by the Valley of the Nile or was it just the result of many coincidences that happened to occupy the same relative position.
The thought has to go through one’s head - “Are we happier now than we were then?” Although, many things have changed in human lives since, our appearance has not evolved significantly throughout centuries, and we are still confined by the rules of gravity and freedom-paralyzing ideologies. Instead of being the slaves of the pharaohs, we are the slaves to the principles of our society. We still live in the constructions that root into “mother earth,” except, not to hide ourselves from the desert storms, but mostly from the perceptions and existence of other human beings; only our buildings are taller and easier to shatter. We don’t write picture symbols on the papyrus to communicate with distant loved ones, but we do write symbols for countless computer programs that convert information to images on the liquid-crystal display - our modern version of Rosetta Stone that is not a 3.9 in. and 2.4 in. black basalt.
The world of science is trying to solve the mysteries of the past, as it re-digests, bit by bit, everything we have studied from school books and tells us that what was believed, is not exactly what should be believed; like, in the instance of the boy-king Tut who, according to history, was once murdered. However, today, we are more confused about that assumption than ever before and have to beg for question: “Are we laughing at history or is history laughing at us?”
Thus, often our scientific and technologic advancements are opening the doors to more uncertainties than resolving the ones that already persist. They have evolved from the holy grail into a Pandora’s box with a sign “I hope it was worth it!” Even Albert Einstein, the genius of unattainable, had to admit that certain gates of science should stay closed, when he heard about Hiroshima. I wonder if James Thomson would feel the same way decades down the road over his own achievement of establishing the world‘s first human embryonic stem cell line?
I am sure on some starry nights the rulers of the ancient Egypt pondered over the fate of mankind; but would they have ever guessed that while they were figuring how to build the most grandiose pyramids, we would be deliberating over how to build “more durable” humans. That our civilization would be faced with the controversies over multipotent adult and pluripotent embryonic stem cells, and which ones are more ethical to use for the research.
Maybe we should look at it from Aristotle‘s standpoint, “In view of the fact that all knowledge and every pursuit aims at some good, what is the highest of all goods achievable by action? It is Happiness.” (Ethics) Although, our definition of happiness may vary from his, one would still have to say that it should include the resolving of pain and suffering. If our science can give “well doing” and “well living” to people who can’t have it otherwise, why is it more ethical to let these people live in anguish and die? How is it a cannibalism to harvest immature stem cells that have no nervous system and have not differentiated into cells that can grow into body parts, but it is not a premeditated homicide choosing not to do so, knowing the potential that the research of regenerative medicine can offer for cures to various diseases. I guess, only healthy people are allowed to vote on this ballot of the century! Hence, we are fighting for the humans that “could be,” but give only a second of thought for the humans “who are.”
Yes, it is a scary thought that one day we could be able to replace every ailing part of our body with the new one or clone a copy of ourselves, but the truth is that Columbus left the harbor quite a while ago and there is no way he would choose to return any time soon, without any treasures from the lands unknown.
And to be honest, are we even fighting over the ethical and moral dilemmas in this subject, or are we just scared of ourselves? Maybe, what really worries us is not the fate of the clones or the outcomes of the research, but the level of our own intelligence to deal with the progress of science and technology - we are afraid of the possibility of becoming an inferior race.
The thought has to go through one’s head - “Are we happier now than we were then?” Although, many things have changed in human lives since, our appearance has not evolved significantly throughout centuries, and we are still confined by the rules of gravity and freedom-paralyzing ideologies. Instead of being the slaves of the pharaohs, we are the slaves to the principles of our society. We still live in the constructions that root into “mother earth,” except, not to hide ourselves from the desert storms, but mostly from the perceptions and existence of other human beings; only our buildings are taller and easier to shatter. We don’t write picture symbols on the papyrus to communicate with distant loved ones, but we do write symbols for countless computer programs that convert information to images on the liquid-crystal display - our modern version of Rosetta Stone that is not a 3.9 in. and 2.4 in. black basalt.
The world of science is trying to solve the mysteries of the past, as it re-digests, bit by bit, everything we have studied from school books and tells us that what was believed, is not exactly what should be believed; like, in the instance of the boy-king Tut who, according to history, was once murdered. However, today, we are more confused about that assumption than ever before and have to beg for question: “Are we laughing at history or is history laughing at us?”
Thus, often our scientific and technologic advancements are opening the doors to more uncertainties than resolving the ones that already persist. They have evolved from the holy grail into a Pandora’s box with a sign “I hope it was worth it!” Even Albert Einstein, the genius of unattainable, had to admit that certain gates of science should stay closed, when he heard about Hiroshima. I wonder if James Thomson would feel the same way decades down the road over his own achievement of establishing the world‘s first human embryonic stem cell line?
I am sure on some starry nights the rulers of the ancient Egypt pondered over the fate of mankind; but would they have ever guessed that while they were figuring how to build the most grandiose pyramids, we would be deliberating over how to build “more durable” humans. That our civilization would be faced with the controversies over multipotent adult and pluripotent embryonic stem cells, and which ones are more ethical to use for the research.
Maybe we should look at it from Aristotle‘s standpoint, “In view of the fact that all knowledge and every pursuit aims at some good, what is the highest of all goods achievable by action? It is Happiness.” (Ethics) Although, our definition of happiness may vary from his, one would still have to say that it should include the resolving of pain and suffering. If our science can give “well doing” and “well living” to people who can’t have it otherwise, why is it more ethical to let these people live in anguish and die? How is it a cannibalism to harvest immature stem cells that have no nervous system and have not differentiated into cells that can grow into body parts, but it is not a premeditated homicide choosing not to do so, knowing the potential that the research of regenerative medicine can offer for cures to various diseases. I guess, only healthy people are allowed to vote on this ballot of the century! Hence, we are fighting for the humans that “could be,” but give only a second of thought for the humans “who are.”
Yes, it is a scary thought that one day we could be able to replace every ailing part of our body with the new one or clone a copy of ourselves, but the truth is that Columbus left the harbor quite a while ago and there is no way he would choose to return any time soon, without any treasures from the lands unknown.
And to be honest, are we even fighting over the ethical and moral dilemmas in this subject, or are we just scared of ourselves? Maybe, what really worries us is not the fate of the clones or the outcomes of the research, but the level of our own intelligence to deal with the progress of science and technology - we are afraid of the possibility of becoming an inferior race.
Häly Laasme
posted by Häly Laasme at 3:41 PM
1 Comments:
Very enjoyable reading.I'm an avid proponent of stem cell research.Hopefully,the little minds that would block the pursuit of knowledge will become the minority.
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