TAN, Dale P.

ME-1/A11 .

1. Based on the article written by Lewis Wolpert, it was mentioned that scientific knowledge,
which are reliable, are considered to be value-free and lacks moral/ethical value. He
believed that scientific knowledge is neutral, that when discoveries are made and this
information is given publicly, they do no harm as it is up to the one who holds the
information on whether what one will make of it, he/she has the freedom on how to
maximize the information whether one abuses it or not. As scientific discoveries can be
advanced further and technologically applied, science itself is objective, lacking human
emotions, which is why it is neutral when it comes to moral values. The ethical value can
be seen when the knowledge is applied, giving the social responsibility to the people.
2. Eugenics is the picking of the desirable traits that a particular race has and giving
them to the race which scientist thinks is suitable by continuous judicial marriage,
leaving the “less suitable” to run out. Modern eugenics on the other hand is more
advanced as it can be a cure to illness of a child before he/she is even born. Eugenics,
in general, alters the natural course of the future of an offspring and/or the society as a
whole. With the straining of the people, it means that rather than letting the race have
its own fate or run its own course, eugenics control what will happen each of the race,
making it unjust for those considered as “less suitable”. On the other hand, the
modern eugenics, which has the ability to alter genes of an offspring also alters the
natural flow of the life of the offspring. Yes, it may have given a remedy to the known
illness coming in the future but there is also a risk of abnormality.
3. Ordinary citizens should be encouraged to learn more about science at least its basics
as it is really dangerous without knowledge of it. Science is the reason behind why one
thing is happening around us, it explains how things take its course. An example of a
current event is the climate change and the global warming, we know that the
atmosphere is already damaged and is followed by great tragedies that hits our planet,
the most recent is the eruption of the Taal Volcano and the burning of a forest in
Australia. These tragedies have hugely damaged again our atmosphere, if we become
ignorant of the basic scientific knowledge that when the ozone layer is destroyed,
ultraviolet rays will enter the planet and will cause skin cancer which is another loss
for the mankind. Therefore, with the current issues happening we should be aware of
the advanced scientific knowledge and be able to apply this to help each other and not
use this as an opportunity to bring each other down for our own personal gains.