"Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled." Deuteronomy 22:9 (NIV).
If you have ever eaten a grapefruit, you are eating a hybrid. A grapefruit is a cross between an orange and a Pomelo. According to Wikipedia, it was discovered in 1750. A naturally occuring grapefruit hybrid has pink flesh. The grapefruit you buy in the grocery store does not. About 90 years ago, farmers began genetically modifying crops by zapping them with x-rays. Plants, after being scrambled by x-rays, produce mutations, some of which are desirable. This is how Ruby Red grapefruits were made and patented.
Nowadays, plant mutation has gone far past the ornamental. Plants are genetically modified to fight disease, drought, insects, salt and other various plant problems to produce higher yields and feed more people. Is this a good thing? I don't know. The Levitical law has a flat prohibition on it. I personally believe in the Bible but am unsure whether this is a ceremonial law meant to remind a person not to defile himself with sin, or whether God has claimed exclusive dominion over genetic manipulation. Or maybe, this is a safety law. Perhaps genetic modification is dangerous, and the next superplague is hiding away in some soybeans somewhere until it is cross pollinated and x-rayed. Its been several thousand years since the law was given at Mount Sinai, but we just now agree that pigs are unclean animals and should not be eaten. Pork carries diseases, gives you cancer, clogs your arteries and so forth. This is not a spiritual point, its just good health.
Doc, in his new Konspiracy Korner series, links us to a guy I had never heard of named Freeman Dyson. Dyson is reported to be really smart, and he is concerned about the future of cross breeding, or what he calls "green technology". He believes that cross breeding experiments are culminating toward one thing. Thusly:
"If we allow a free market in human genes, wealthy parents will be able to buy what they consider superior genes for their babies. This could cause a splitting of humanity into hereditary castes. Within a few generations, the children of rich and poor could become separate species."
That is, Dyson believes that people will manipulate their genes more than trying to impregnate a supermodel. He believes that people will be able to add desirable characteristics to their genes, and make super children.
The first place this may crop up is in cancer therapy. Cancer is when a cell becomes damaged and multiplies out of control. Mammals have a cancer fighting gene called TP53. It works by isolating and killing rogue cells. Humans and cancer prone animals like dogs and cats have two TP53 genes. Elephants have twenty TP53 genes. Elephant cancer rates are less than 5 percent, despite having lots more cells than people or dogs.
Why are elephants superior at preventing cancer? First, there is more elephant TP53, Second, it works more efficiently. Elephant TP53 kills rogue cells much more quickly than human TP53. Human TP53 gives suspect cells a comparatively long leash to fix themselves. Elephant TP53 kills rogue cells on sight. The elephant setup is better.
It is believed that large whales have a similarly excellent cancer prevention system, but whales do not give up their blood very easily, so studying them is difficult.
Cancer raises several philosophical questions: 1. Humans could be designed to be much more durable than they are. Why? Biologically,elephants and some whales take two full years of gestation, so naturally these animals should have utmost longevity to compensate. Elephants live to about 60 or 70, usually succumbing to tooth decay (be thankful for dentures), while some large whales (who don't have teeth) live to 150 years or so. It is somewhat alarming to learn that humans, in some ways, are not the preeminent mammals. 2. Is it wrong to splice elephant TP53 onto a human, or in the alternative to change human TP53 to behave like an elephant's TP53 by killing precancerous cells sooner? 3. Is a person thus modified as super cancer resistant still a human, or has he become designer man? Would such a man be an abomination, or just fixing his pitiable state, like fitting an older person for dentures? To put it another way, what is wrong with trying to improve your health?
Also, if genetic modification is bad, is it equally bad to fix humans with more and more advanced prosthetics? What if a person was the proverbial brain in a jar, or at least in the Darth Vader state of being more machine now than human? If advanced prosthetics are different than genetic modification, how so?