Wednesday, August 26, 2009
It’s a wonder, how sometimes a discussion can open so many doors. A side to those you’d never thought you’d see. It’s a wonder to the things you can learn if you listen, and the sheer variation of opinions about the same issue, all because we have experienced/seen different things along the course of life, or . Or perhaps, we have seen similar, but it is our response, our personality and outlook on life that differ. It’s a wonder the things you learn, when you listen, especially (I know, corny, but bear with me) to those who have gone through life.
Thanks to our (stupid) bio SAC on ethical issues, it has roused up a lot of interesting arguments….Take this example from our w/s:
Q1: would you conceive an IVF child (embryo selection) on purpose to save the life of your first born? Considering that the parents wanted another child, anyway, it’s the first child’s only hope to survival, but the parent’s want a boy, and also that there’s only a one in 5 chance of success (i.e. the other embryo’s are discarded.)
So far, I’ve known of two no’s (one of which is a VERY firm no) two yes’s and two undecided. -.-"
It poses the question of: do we see it from the fatalistic POV? That natural selection should just be allowed to take place? Should we accept and move on (despite not all of us are strong enough to do this since it’s easier said than done)? Do we use the technology that we have created to save/prolong lives? Where do we draw the line in genetic manipulation? WHO has the right to draw the line, or define what that line is?
Ok, I can see where the whole, “controversial” thing comes from then….these kind of things just seem so subjective.
But I think that experiences mould the person. We can imagine all we want, pretend that we understand, but we will never truly comprehend what they are feeling, nor can we judge them until we are thrust against such circumstances ourselves. It’s slightly easier to say “no,” to say “it happened for a reason,” or “maybe it was meant to be” when one stands detached from the issue. You’d be surprised how human instincts kick in times of great hardship, especially when your faced with a decision like this. We might even know that things happen for a reason, but what reason is that? The very concept might just be hard for someone, for example, had just been told that their child has an incurable illness, or that they themselves are terminally ill, or grasp. You also can't possibly tell me that "there's a reason, but I'm not interested in it" -.-" That's almost like saying "I know there's something better out there, but I'm not going to look" or "I know there's a meaning to life, I just don't want to know it...."
The more I think about it, the more it seems that we, as a human race, seem to be screwing up the world. We, as one unity, have enough nuclear bombs to blow up the Earth about 1000 times. Population numbers are coming to a peak. We are choosing ourselves over the ecosystem. Illnesses, both physical and psychological, are plaguing the world even more so with our technological advancements as things must be sacrificed, things must change. Ironically, it’s also this technology, that we’re using (or trying to use) to, for better words, save our own asses. So in a way, to me it seems like we are, through medical research and the like, trying to right our wrongs, trying to fix up what we’ve created, or possibly made worse, trying to clean up our own mess.
Human curiosity is the foundation of advancement, of research, of discovery. It’s curiosity, that makes us ask – why? But then again, we are, after all finite and our knowledge of the universe is partial, imperfect and conditioned by the social structures we have used in constructing our scientific understanding.
As part of the next generation, I wonder what ways we will change this world. I believe we can, for the better. To hold onto that small hope, that we can heal this Earth to some degree, correct our mistakes, and hopefully learn from them. There will always be good and evil, after all, man kind is present, but to hold onto that dream that we can, and will, revolutionize the world in which we live in is something special. Each in our own way, starting from the smallest of things. There is so much we do not know, yet we keep searching for that reason. There are things we need to resolve, boundaries we no doubt need to put in place. But the greatest journey’s start from within. To firstly understand what makes us, us as well as our morals and ethics (both personal and social) can we then try and make the world a better place.
