在未來的世界中，如果父母先設計好你的基因，然後再讓你出生。對身為佛教徒的人，這是怎樣一種情形呢？父母除了要將疾病基因去掉，還選擇你的性別、身高，以及眼睛、頭髮、皮膚的顏色。如果父母是佛教徒，他們甚至於會選擇使你容易打雙盤的基因。世間風氣時尚多變，他們也許會選擇一些功能尚不清楚的基因；這些基因又據說和脾氣、智力、念力，乃至神通有關係。（今後也不再需要去尋找tulkus了，因為他們現在可以複製自己，然後再自我重生。）如果你父母窮的話，或許有人會付他們一筆錢，請他們將你的基因設計成某種職業類型，並在你出生前就訂下未來就業的合約。就如影片Gattaca中所描述的，或許你的社會地位完全由你基因特性的強化而決定，當然，還是會有少少一些不受這些時髦影響，自願選擇自然生態的獨特的人，在山上打坐。
你的食物，從吸吮的第一口奶開始，或者是有計劃的或者是盲目的，都是經過基因工程加工的。因工程加工過的樹、植物、動物、昆蟲、細菌、病毒，已完全將自然界弄得面目全非，疾病也大不相同。以前的疾病不復存在，或雜交成新的模式，可多數人卻在忍受著基因工程所產生的痛苦。這些要不然是因為生物戰爭，或是基因工程產物向環境的錯誤散釋，本來無害的基因經突變的有毒產物。基因工程已如此普遍，在小學就開始做簡單實驗了。
這種對未來的描述，比你想像的來得眞實。從佛教徒的角度而言，我們要分析一下現代基因工程的發展趨勢，是如何種下了影響世界未來的種子。因為基因工程具有天翻地覆地改變人與自然的潛力，對我們的威脅遠比其他種類的技術要來得大。
按照佛教教理講，我們所感受到的自然界，是這個星球上眾生共業的一個標籤，人性是思想、感情、業的混合。在覺悟的大道上，這些都必須要轉化。在這個勇敢的新世界上，業與苦仍然伴隨著我們。有人認為基因工程對佛教徒而言沒甚麼大不了的，我們現在處事的一套方法，將來不會有多少變化。怛是，我們或許應該深一層地看這個問題。
比如，基因工程與我們覺悟的潛力、證果的關係如何呢？佛教認為我們的身體、神經系統，和我們的心相互影響。這就是基於業力倫理學所強調的，身心兩方面的清淨是境界提昇的先決條件。比如打坐時，我們身體中微細的生理變化會與靈性的進步息息相關。禪定越深，身心的轉化就越深刻。同樣，從佛陀時代起，佛教徒就知道某些地方具有特殊的自然能量，對於修定修慧很有幫助。
基因工程具有潛力來改變我們身心環境，使個人的解脫愈加困難。比如吸毒之後，人的生理狀況會改變，使修禪變得更加困難。相類似地，基因工程會以我們還不明白的方式阻礙我們修道。即使基因工程影響修道的幾率相當小，這也是個我們應該嚴肅正視的問題，因為科學只關注物質世界，科學實驗不可能對此類風險做出評估的。
還有一個佛教重視而科學卻忽視的重要概念，這就是佛教戒律的第一條——不傷害，尊重一切眾生的生命及其覺悟的潛力。有情眾生具有中樞神經系統，可以覺察到痛。（植物不被認為屬有情之列。）在佛教裡一個重要原則就是以拔苦、無我的慈悲，做為行動準則。
佛教反對基因學家或任何人將人類、非人類的生命當做器具來使用。這就是說，佛教徒不應將眾生當做物體、工具來使用，而不考慮他們的意願。所以佛教徒看待基因工程，首先就要分析其對生命的影響，看它如何產生或消除苦痛，看它如何幫助或阻礙證悟的進程。
有些基因學家懷著善心用基因工程來利益人群。比如，在農業上增產及減少蟲害；在醫學上，用新的基因治療癌症或遺傳病，但是許多人一心追求的是個人利益、權力及聲望。
從佛教觀點來看，即使是出於善心的努力，也是令人懷疑的。轉化動物的方法往往是殘忍的，像幾內亞種豬一樣被人用來測試基因工程的食品。這個星球上基本生態系統的健康，長遠生活的健康品質都在下降。
第二條戒是不偷盜，可生物科技公司，甚至於某些大學都在偷我們的基因：土著的基因、當地藥草及植物的基因，將它們申請成為自己的專利，再向使用者收費。佛教徒的做為與此非常不同；佛教導我們，在與人及環境相處時，我們要如蜂採蜜，互利而不加傷害。
另一方面，佛教徒認為宇宙為開放系統。相反的，科學方法只是在人為假設的封閉系統中才有些意義，但這與實際情形相比，卻是不完備不圓滿的。實驗室中眞實的東西，在自然界未必是眞的。基因工程在開放系統中改變了生命後，其整體後果會是怎麼樣，由於科學方法內在的局限，人類是不能看清楚的。
從佛教的基本道德來看，基因工程專門領域的進步，都在製造問題，使未來的倫理問題更加含糊複雜。基因工程對我們生活的世界有何重要影響，佛教徒要對此進行業果的分析，提出自己的看法，就首先要瞭解這一領域的實況。以下是些與倫理關係最密切的，有代表性的領域。
植物和食物仍是基因工程的研究課題。Delta ＆ Pine Land公司獲得一項技術專利，就是一種經基因改造過的種籽，第二次播種時不會發芽，除非要灑上該公司具有專利的一種方劑才行，而方劑中主要都是抗生素。孟山都公司想用這種「終止技術」來阻止農民回收基因工程的種籽，強迫用戶年年都向它購買新的種籽。
為了避免對石油化工製成的塑膠的依賴，美國、歐洲、加拿大的一些科學家從基因工程植物的莖部製造出了塑膠。他們說這種塑膠大約經六個月，就會分解腐化。
待續 |
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What might it be like to be a Buddhist in a future world where your life started with your parents designing your genes? In addition to screening for unwanted genetic diseases, they select for sex, height, eye, hair, and skin-color, and, if your parents are Buddhists, maybe even genes that allow you to sit easily in the full lotus position. Pressured by current social fads, they may also have chosen genes whose overall functions are not clearly understood but are rumored to be connected with temperament, intelligence, mindfulness, and perhaps psychic powers. (There is no longer any need to search for tulkus. They now clone themselves and get reborn in their own clones.) If your parents are poor, they may have been paid to design you with genes tailored for a particular occupation, together with a pre-birth contract for future employment. As in the film Gattaca, you probably belong to a clearly defined social class according to the degree of your genetic enhancement. Of course there may still be a few weird, unenhanced naturals-by-choice meditating in the mountains.
From the very first milk you suckled, your food is genetically engineered. The natural world is completely made over, invaded and distorted beyond recognition by genetically engineered trees, plants, animals, insects, bacteria, and viruses, both planned and run amok. Illnesses are very different too. Most of the old ones are gone or mutated into new forms, yet most people are suffering from the aftermath of genetically engineered pathogens, either used in biowarfare, or mistakenly released into the environment, or recombined in toxic form from originally harmless but rapidly mutating engineered organisms. Genetic engineering is so commonplace, you started your own simple experiments with it in elementary school.
That future is more plausible than you might think. From a Buddhist perspective, we need to analyze how current developments in genetic engineering are providing the causal seeds that will influence the worlds of the future. Because genetic engineering has the potential to radically transform both nature and human nature, it poses a much greater threat than other technologies.
According to Buddhist teachings, nature as we experience it is a label for the shared karma of sentient beings on the planet, and human nature is a karmic mixture of thought and emotion that has to be transformed on the path to enlightenment. Since karma—and suffering—will still be with us in the Brave New World, some have suggested that genetic engineering is not a big deal for Buddhists, that the work cut out for us now will, essentially, not change. But maybe we should take a deeper look.
What, for instance, is the relation of genetic engineering to our potential for enlightenment and its realization? The Buddhist view is that the condition of our bodies and nervous systems affects our minds and vice versa. That is why karmic-based ethics insists on purity of both mind and body as a prerequisite for spiritual progress. For example, when we meditate, subtle physiological changes take place in our bodies that resonate with our level of spiritual progress. The deeper our meditation, the more profound the body-mind transformation. Likewise, from the time of the Buddha, Buddhists have recognized that certain places have special natural energies that enhance progress in meditation and insight.
Genetic engineering has the potential for altering both our bodies and environments in ways that lessen their ability to support the process of personal transformation. For instance, when a person takes drugs, the bodily physiology becomes altered which makes meditation more difficult; similarly, genetic engineering may impact our bodies in ways as yet unknown that will impede our progress on the Path. Even if there is only a relatively small possibility of genetic engineering affecting progress on the path to enlightenment, it is a serious cause for concern. Because science deals only with the physical realm, no scientific experiment can possibly assess this kind of risk.
Another key concept, which Buddhism cherishes and science ignores, is the first moral precept: the principle of non-harming and respect for all sentient life and for its potential for enlightenment. Sentient beings have a central nervous system, so they are aware of pain (plants are not considered sentient). An important corollary is the alleviation of suffering and the notion of selfless compassion as a guiding principle in our actions.
Buddhism, then, condemns any instrumental use of human or non- human sentient life by geneticists, or anyone else. That means Buddhists shouldn't treat sentient beings as objects or tools to be used without regard for their own wishes or aspirations. Thus, the Buddhist approach to genetic engineering begins with analyzing its effect on life, how it creates or alleviates suffering, and how it aids or cripples the efforts of sentient beings to realize their potential for enlightenment.
Some geneticists are well-intentioned in their desire to use genetic engineering in altruistic ways. For example, in agriculture they are trying to increase yields and resistance to harmful insects. In the field of medicine they are trying to develop new genetic cures for cancer and inherited genetic diseases. Yet many get caught up in their own desires for profit, power, and fame.
Even well-intentioned efforts often look dubious from a Buddhist viewpoint. Animals are transformed genetically in ways that are often cruel, and humans are being treated as guinea pigs to test genetically engineered food. The basic health of ecosystems and the longer term health of life on the planet are also disregarded.
The second moral precept is the prohibition against stealing. Yet, biotech corporations and even some universities are stealing our genes, the genes of indigenous peoples, native herbs and plants, patenting them, and then charging for their use. The Buddhist approach is much different.
The Buddha taught that, in interacting with others and with the environment, we should emulate the honey-bee as it takes pollen from flowers. The advantage is mutual and there is no harm.
Furthermore, Buddhism understands the cosmos as an open system. In contradistinction, the scientific method usually operates within hypothesized artificial and closed systems that are assumed to have some meaningful, but incomplete and imperfect, correspondence with the "real" world. What seems to be the case in the laboratory may or may not be valid in the natural world. Scientific methodology cannot, because of its inherent limitations, assess the full extent of the possible effects of genetically engineered alterations on living creatures in a world that is an open system.
From the viewpoint of basic Buddhist morality, specific developments in genetic engineering are troubling and point to a future riddled with ethical uncertainty and complexity. Buddhist practitioners first need to know what is actually going on in the field, before they can do their own karmic analyses of how they and the world we all live in will be affected in ways that are important to them and what their appropriate responses might be. The following is a representative sampling of some of the areas of greatest ethical concern.
Plants and food continue to be subjects for genetic engineering . The Delta & Pine Land Company received a U.S. patent on a technique that genetically alters seed so that it will not germinate if replanted a second time, so that their seeds lose their viability unless sprayed with a patented formula containing primarily antibiotics. Monsanto Corporation wants to use this "Terminator Technology" to keep farmers from collecting genetically engineered seed, forcing them to buy it every year.
To avoid dependency on petroleum-based plastics, some scientists in the U.S., Europe, and Canada have genetically engineered plants that produce plastic within their stem structures. They claim that it biodegrades in about six months.
To be continued |
