Bioethics

Domination, Technology, and Human Nature

“The three ideas which have been discussed—”death with dignity” and human autonomy, the distinction between “persons” and “non-persons,” and “quality of life” judgments—al have something in common. They are all used dogmatically, leading to great confidence in our right to control human life. These are areas where the great religious tradition at its best has been restrained by agnosticism and a sense of transcendent mystery. Some believers have tried to combine these two views of life in a crudely simplistic manner. They have identified the freedoms of technology with the freedom given by truth. The result in the public world, if policy flowed from this identification., would be the destruction of cherished political freedoms.”

George Grant, Technology and Justice (Ontario: Anasi, 1986), 115.