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Show Page A16 THE DAILY HERALD, (www.HaATheHerald.coin), Provo, Utah, Sunday, May 28, 2000 i 'Natural' can't answer all The Processes used in genetic modification of fcrops continues to generate considerable controversy. We indicated last time that fevery crop we have has Undergone major genetic modification; I can think of friot one that is still as ,,, Mature gave to us. It was Thomas Jefferson who said that the most Ity. . important contribution anyone could make to humanity is to develop a useful plant. ' There Vgood reason for that insight: domesticating a crop plant takes huge amounts of work, insight, and major good luck genetic "Modern Biotechnology speeds and refines that process, of course, making it at least quantitatively different. Some aspects, such as introducing genes from rather unrelated species, may even give a qualitatively different aspect to it all. But both of these, distinguished from one another or not, have given rise to vociferous objections. A major argument, voiced just this past week by no less than Prince Charles, is that modern biotechnology is not natu-ral. In some subtle but profound way, he argued, science is now violating the sacred trust between humans and deity. That trust, in his view, keeps science in check so that it does not treat all of creation as just some great laboratory where anything and everything can be pianipulated at will. At first, this seems v t ( i ; ALL ever envisioned, strip it of some of its natural products, fortify it with others and then we have the gall to say that this is acceptably "natural"? A more recent writer, if ( 1 one Steve Connor, points out that the smallpox virus is natural, so is botulism ' and plague. An African child dying from diarrhea as a result of drinking cholera is a quite natural event. So are children born in the industrially developed world with inherited-g- ene disorders. If we wanted to follow a "natural" existence, we wouldn't practice medicine. We would allow the many DUANE JEFFERY appealing: But inherent inthe argument (and it is a Very, very old one) is the Escape to your backyard for this year's - assumption that whatever is "natural" is good and what- ever is "unnatural" is bad. Nature is seen as the direct work of divinity; we weak but presumptive mortals should not tamper with it. To do so is to arrogate to ourselves the prop- erties of deity; we begin to "play God." The response to this, of course, is that humans have been playing Qjd for millenia. Except for passing body wastes, is there anything we do that is as nature gave it to us? As one writer put it a couple of decades ago: it is completely unnatural to Create Your Vacation Escape With A Custom Yard Package: A Sundance Spa Stamp-cret- e PondAVaterfall Snas Sundance r r uitenatUTatdiseases"tjr take their course. We wouldn't bother to sow crops and store grain, but rely instead on the season al bounty that Mothe- rNature may or may not Kf6 II provide. Above all, if we wanted to be natural, we would . let natural selection be the ultimate arbiter of whether we live or die. Quite natural, but quite appalling. It seems then that "natural" is not a reliable criterion by which to judge the moral or ethical acceptability of cropfood production or, frankly, of any other human activity. We could, of course, argue that since humans are part of nature, everything humans do is thereby "natural." That, quite obviously, negates the entire argument and renders it clearly meaningless. manipulate the mammary glands of a cow, extract the exudate therefrom which nature clearly intended for the calf, and feed it to our own infants or to ourselves. And, of course, what we do with the milk before we distribute it for public consumption is flagrantly ilnnatural: we heat it, sterilize it, chill and cool it, put it in strange containers unlike anything nature has PergolaflTrellis Decorative Built-i- n "baib-cue- " iTrfnTiTnTThiiiiiniHiiVi 1 llllil lllltlllllllllllliK IB Ml t n 1 FREE! wpkg TI . PACKAGE INCLUDES $5,995 Sundance Spa "Best Built Spas" - Rock or Stucco 8'x5' with e $4,995 Grill & Fridge $3,825 Pergola - premium no mainenance -- VJ.. I ' S 11 ' -- Bar-b-cu- 15'xl5' $5,400 'Pond wwaterfall installed wrocks $3,990 Stamp-crete patio 15'x30' $450 Design & Drawing "Credit" -- .,... 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