Ethics and the Deconstruction of "Boundaries" : The Self-Understanding of Human Beings "After Dolly"(<Special Issue>Religion and Ethics)

Abstract

Current biological sciences, such as molecular biology and biotechnology, are said to strongly influence and shift our understanding of reality, especially our understanding of human beings and their understanding of God, the ultimate reality. The shift in the "boundaries" between humans and non-humans, humans and nature, and humans and God is being influenced by these biological sciences. These shifts are expected to give birth to a new ethics, in that ethics is related to ethos, the sphere that human beings inhabit. In a society where the Christian world view prevails, the habitats of all things and creatures are said to be predetermined by ordo creationis (=order of creation). Therefore, changing the habitat of a thing or creature is condemned as an impious way to "play God," and it has enormous ethical connotations. This paper will try to illuminate the ethical implications of the current life sciences, and their influence in shaping a possible new form of ethics.