The keys to developing an ethics apart from religion would be seeing where your motivations lie, the short and long term consequences, if you are doing something for the greater good of humanity or to further yourself, your moral reasoning. These points are all aspects of ethics that we need to be looking at especially when it comes to the genome and new genetic technology. The most important part of these ethical ideas would be why are you doing this and who is it benefiting. This is one of the most important ideas because if you are genetically modifying an embryo because you know that it has a predisposition to a horrible disease and want to get rid of that or because this is the only way for you to get pregnant, then that would be an alright situation. But if you are “deliberately breeding semi-human beings for spare parts” ( Dalai Lama, pg 65) then I think it’s time to rethink what is going on.

With this new technology there are many things that could happen, some good and some bad. We aren’t sure what will happen, there is no conclusive evidence that particular products will harm us but that doesn’t mean we should be modifying everything. If this technology can help how we live then that is great but there is a time when to much of something needs to stop. The Dalai Lama talks about how they can genetically modify plants and that can help feed the growing population. He also talks about if this does happen are the people making this happen actually helping people or do they want the farmers to have to buy their special seeds and profit form this. We need to think of the moral reasoning behind some of these ideas. This is a key factor.