From farming to pharming: Transcending of bodily existence as a question of medical ethics in an intercultural context

Abstract

Biopharming is a new way of an old task: constructing transcendences. We transcend our skills, our time and our body. The ethical concern, to use or to misuse the freedom of our creativity, does not differ from traditional farming. But the anthropological impact differs, as people of the twenty-first century are ready to cross the borders of bodily existence by biotechnology. This is shaped by the question how this technology follows the previous courses of transcending our lives: history and religion. As the creations of god reflect his glory, the products of pharming could reflect the glory and beauty of ourselves. But shall they do this? The anthropological impact of this technology is whether we make it a technical way of recreating ourselves or we make it a human way of developing our world through a technologically-driven change of mind.