A day full of ethics

I love my job, but it's putting ants in my head, as we say here.

I spent this morning doing a group project for my course in Research Ethics. We were supposed to discuss and delve into the fine print of whether genetic engineering (both on the agricultural, animal and human level) is ethically defensible. Specifically, we were to imagine that a technology for separating XX- and XY-chromosomes had been developed, i.e. it would be possible to control the sex of a child before conception. Our job was to discuss the risks, moral obligations, stakeholders etc. and decide whether this technology should be developed for human use or not. None of us actually worked with biology, so this was an all-novice team of researchers discussing a very volatile subject involving parenthood, governmental control, economic stakeholders and what have you. This is very important messy stuff, as is most ethics talk concerning research, and I emerged from that discussion feeling mentally dishevelled...

It's dead interesting, but the point was to learn the hard way that 'right' and 'wrong' is insanely difficult to define in a context where society consists of a mixture people who either believe that it is morally wrong to 'Play God', or by contrast that there is really no such thing as 'sanctity of life'. Both sides seem equally unwilling to release that viewpoint, and being from a duality of moral codes myself (catholic vs. swedish liberal, pretty much opposite ends of the continuum) it easily becomes very personal. Most ethics issues are difficult for the untrained because it's so easy to confuse with morals, which are a personal choice. Ethics, on the other hand, are a poke in the back telling you that no individual is detatched from society and a social context, though some would like to think that scientists and science are... At any rate, it was easy to get off track, but all side-roads to the genetics discussion were somehow relevant.

This same afternoon I got recruited (without blinking... by a muscle synapse?) to a Facebook cause called 'Free Dawit Isaak'. It's a laudable cause, I support this with no reservations. But after spending the morning the way I did, there's a question that bothers me (even if it's probably a healthy sign): so I joined a group who wants to free him... and now what do I do?