TED Community » Dawud Miracle

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• A reply on Conversation: Misunderstanding Ethics and the purpose of this talk

  Mar 31 2011: I hear you Paul. And I definitely see this as a monumental debate/discussion that will decide all of our futures to some degree - especially when we talk about modifying the genome of organisms. For instance, can we be certain that eating genetically modified salmon won't, in the long term, harm our bodies? Does anyone have this answer? And if not, is it ethical in any shape to begin selling genetically modified salmon as food?
  
  I know well that we've had more than a decade of GMO in agriculture. Some of the staple ag products are all GMO if they're not organic. And yet we face a massive health crisis, for instance, in the U.S. I don't at all suggest that GMO ag is solely responsible - there's way too many factors. Yet, I believe it is fair to say that we don't actually know the extent of how modified soy or corn or canola affect our health. And now, with these crops having been in the wild for a long time, it would be very difficult to undo if we found GMO soy was dangerous to eat.
  
  For me, I don't think it's possible to discuss ethics without including commerce. So often we see everything from companies right on down to individuals willing to bend, even break, agreed upon ethical principles for the all-might buck. I'm perfectly fine with science exploring new frontiers. What I don't trust at all is when companies decide to make profit off of things that could harm our lives. It happens every day in the pharmaceutical industry. Companies make and sell drugs that are rushed to market for profit rather than the betterment of life. How can we be so sure that playing around with the genome won't just be another method for large companies to make huge profits on technologies that we simply have no idea of the long-term consequences?
  
  Funding clouds the clarity of research, technological advancement, corporate decision making and government oversight all the time. How can we possibly have a discussion on ethics and leave out financial gains? Seems moot otherwise.
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  A comment on Conversation: What are 10 things YOU know to be true?

  Mar 31 2011: The first 10 I came up with. There's many more...
  
  1. If I don't find my own truth, I'll end up living by yours
  2. I only have one body so I'd better take care of it
  3. We're all searching…for something…
  4. Every single one of us know something that no one else in the world knows - but us
  5. My children need a lot of things to be successful - none more important than my unabated love
  6. Even though receiving feels nice, giving feels way better - it really does!
  7. Technology can solve only some of our problems - and not the most important ones
  8. If I don't use my voice, no one else will
  9. Laughter heals
  10. The peace, quality and happiness of my life is ultimately up to me