GEN26 The Biblical account of the Creation lists two categories of agricultural products, vegetation and trees. After the emergence of these distinct species, God surveyed them and declared them “good.” Religious ethicists have assumed that the phrase “after its kind” expresses a divine design to preserve each of the distinct species in its natural state. Does man have a moral right to tamper with the laws of nature, divinely ordained, to berate products superior to that which God proclaimed to be “good”?  This ethical question is predicated on a theological principle If we put the religious issue aside, it is hard to perceive any ethical breach in the cross-fertilization of different species. However, modern genetic engineering, which promises to yield the secret of “creation” to man, enabling him to predetermine the gender, traits, and character of a newborn, surely projects the moral issue inherent in the altering of the laws of nature. Will a future dictator have it within his power to decrees the birth of a generation of fanatical fighting men?   BLOCH 267