Cloning:  Are Creatures Really Our Commodities?

We are pretty much living in a worldview that says that everything is judged by its value to the human being -- anthropocentrism as ideology (ideology=meaning in the service of power). Everything is subservient to us (and it is not always clear who the US is) in the sense that we control it. Even if we decide that spotted owls are worth something, that worth is decided by us for our purposesd, even if those purposes are somewhat altruistic. St. Francis of Assisi had quite a different view on this. 

One of the most important developments in our time, prompted by scientific knowledge, the environmental crisis, and other pressures, is the recognition that we really do not understand very well WHY things exist, what their purpose (if any) is, and what our relation to them ought to be. This is, in my view, perhaps the most important human question raised by the recent sheep cloning announcement. 

All this is changing, partly because we realize that we now have such raw power over the biosphere that our very ability to do pretty much as we damn please is scary. So, we have to ask "Just what are baboons for--is it just to provide HIV-immune bone marrow for humans?" As soon as we ask this sort of question, we are assuming that other things have a value or worth that is not totally subservient to our survival, and not even totally understood by us. We will never know the inherent worth of other things, because all conceptions of their worth are simply that--OUR CONCEPTIONS. 

The term INHERENT refers, not to absolutness, but to the fact that the value of other things is not reducible to our ideas of value. The opposite of inherent value is INSTRUMENTAL VALUE or a COMMODITY VALUE. Practically everything in our culture is reduced to instrumental or commodity status. The biotech, pharmaceutical, health care delivery industries are key forces for the commodity-ization of the biosphere. This will happen with sheep (already has), and the big issue for me with regard to human cloning is that it will happen with humans, as well (it already has). This point of view essentially denies there is a DEPTH to reality, to nature, to living creatures. 

I am not a Luddite. I am not opposed to this genetic science and engineering. I am not opposed to thinking about what it means for humans. I am thoroughly committed to putting as many obstacles as I can in the way of the speeding freight train of thought and action that is called COMMODITY THINKING. 

We have known for a long time that, in our own sun's evolution toward the phase of Red Giant, we would go extinct, unless we are able to migrate elsewhere in the universe. The Mars' discovery underscores the fragility of life and also its episodic character. 

Obviously, I believe that the ultimate value of things is determined by God. In my religious myth, God created everything out of nothing, meaning that God created things because of God's own desire and according to God's own intention. Furthermore, God believes that everything is worth dying for. Christ is not only for humans, but, as Ephesians and Colossians say, Christ is also for the cosmos. This religious worldview tells me that having been created as a co-creator is, one sense, a can of worms: it puts me in a position in which I am accountable for respecting the intrinsic or inherent value of the creation, because that value is ontologically grounded [i.e., in God], even though the discernment of that value is beyond my capabilities, while at the same time my power of over things (also God-given) is operationally almost unlimited. 

We will continue to pursue our knowledge and technology--we have no alternative. My tradition tells me that we will do so as sinners. That means that we will fail to understand fully enough; we will fail to act correctly enough; we will make mistakes. The greatest fallacy-danger is to deny this and pretend that there is some perfect, paradisaical use of cloning that we will arrive at if we think clearly enough, feel sincerely enough about, and debate long enough. That will never happen. Since we are sinners and fallible, and we are also created co-creators, we ought to engineer in that fallibility-sinner factor, be as humble as hell, spend a lot of time on our knees, and recognize that if Oppenheimer thought that the atomic bomb revealed original sin, the era of genetic engineering will reveal it much more. Then as one of my tradition's mentors has said: Full speed ahead, and sin boldly.

Originally published in 1997 at http://www.usao.edu/~facshaferi/HEFNER1.HTML.