Is continuous research in every field for human betterment a blessing or a curse? The use of biotechnology in the field of plant life has been with us for a long time, with research working on organic methods to get better yields in food crops. Now we are interfering with the chemical workings of Mother Nature in plant life and growth when we connect our chemistry to hers, as we carry on research for better yields in food crops. In a relatively short time these engineered foods have been put in the market for our consumption. What happens to people born and raised on Nature’s building blocks coming from the distant past, who must now feast on chemically altered foods? Surely, engineered results must vary from the results of the biological process used by Mother Nature in growing wholesome and nutritious foods and providing herbal medicines for all of life. If Mother Nature arrived with imperfections it was not a call for help, but rather a call to use our minds, a joining in the creative process, an honour to uphold.
In the field of medicine for instance, medical technology has made great strides in restoring and maintaining the human physiology thereby fostering personal well-being to a large extent. Administering to the physical good, to mending bodies is a wonderful and necessary endeavour. On the other hand, in providing services that do not come under physical needs, that accommodate the human desires, are practices that fall under another category, one requiring complex reasons in decision making.
The ability to interfere with the workings of chromosomes and genes, the ability to replace disease-carrying genes is a blessing when the result puts an end to cancer or diabetes. However, when the service is geared to accommodating vanity or greed, when the result is the emergence of a blonde male giant or a supposed female beauty, or an expected super genius in the business of art or science, it is distinctly another matter. It caters to an enhancement of power and a developing need that can be potentially harmful to the natural workings of human nature grounded in a society.
Morality dances to the tune of the power structure in operation, as well as the average person. It’s a selling and buying world, a flowering of the availability of having any and every wonderful commodity offering ideal preferences to suit individual needs. Money is more and more at the centre of life. Time is fleeting, bringing along with it speed and stress.
That perfection reaching out for more, falls into imperfection. Perfection must be savoured and shared to promote a healthy all-round growth. Perfection can also put a stop to growth and lose itself in confinement. Life is a process of incessant changes in mental, physical, social and economic growth. When growth is static it dies, giving way to transcendence and change.
How is one to find guidance to correct conduct in administration? The elusiveness of right and wrong in the power structure must be weighed on the scale of moral standard, which is itself modeled on truth. The citizenry deserves fair play from the power structure it supports. There is a congestion of consumer goods in the market with marked-down prices set to empty the wallet. The buyer can well be just another victim; the seller may still make a buck.
The groceries are laden with chemically altered fruits and veggies grown from bio-solids, animal manure and chemical fertilizers, saved by herbicides and pesticides, and primed for shelf life with preservatives. To strive for more gain and less losses is the motto, a natural human direction that can prove to be unfair for all.
Hormones fatten our meats and there appears to be no stopping the play of science in research employed in developing cross-breeding, connecting plant with plant, animal or fish, through the implanting of the miniscule but mighty gene. Bio-technology as every other service to humanity can be a blessing or a curse. It will depend on how it is utilized. The answers lie in True Necessity back there behind the Mist. What would God prefer? The question must be asked.