Breakthrough: Nature is no guide

When word broke last year that a Komodo dragon in a Kansas zoo had given a virgin birth, I immediately emailed Johns Hopkins philosopher Jane Bennett to offer up more evidence for her enchantment of modern life hypothesis. Since Max Weber, social scientists and philosophers have long declared modern life the enemy of enchantment, mystery, and awe. But starting with her 2001 book, The Enchantment of Modern Life (Princeton) Bennett has been chronicling the ways that enchantment keeps breaking through.

We wrote about Bennett's book in Break Through as an argument against the depressing disenchantment narrative we hear so often from our environmentalist friends. The idea is that the gaze of capital-S "Science" robs the world of mystery. Hogwash, says Bennett, and we agree.

Now an op-ed in the Times today points to another lesson offered up by the Komodo virgin birth: nature is no guide for human life.

Neil Shubin writes:

Cloning is one of many mechanisms species use to survive in a dangerous world. Indeed, the diversity of reproductive strategies seen in animals staggers the imagination. Some reptiles do not determine sexes genetically, but rely on different incubation temperatures to determine the development of males and females. Other creatures can actually switch sexes during their lifetimes, being born male and developing as females. Still others can switch sexes based on behavioral cues in the social group. There is no one way that creatures start development, grow and form sexes -- there are many varied ways.
Unfortunately, humans seem to forget this fact when we find ourselves turning to nature to guide us through difficult choices, such as arguments about whether life begins at conception, or over the proper structure of the family. Or, more recently, regarding the morality of cloning. Whether we're talking about raising bigger cattle or growing life-saving organs or trying to "live forever," both sides like to stress their abilities to judge what is "natural." Judging from Komodo dragons, lizards and sharks, the answer seems to be that for reproduction, almost anything goes...

So as we continue our very necessary debates over ethical issues, let's bear in mind that morality is a concept limited to our species. The natural world is a fuzzy place that doesn't always accommodate our decidedly human need to find cut-and-dried categories.

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