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* Streben nach Unendlichkeit *: in this way German romantic poets described the need of man in general to go beyond his limits, to try out his capacities, to be always unsatisfied with what he reaches. This attitude enables man and the society with him to be dynamic, to make progress. Science and technology help men to know more and more about the ecosystem in which they live, hence they are two essencial instruments in our hands that may allow us to improve our way of life. The society, indeed, invests a lot of money in the technological researches, first of all because it firmly believes in the human intellectual power to be successful, secondly because the scientific fields are a good resource to make more money. Of late, science and technology have made rapid and steady strides above all in the genetics: women have some difficulties in becoming pregnant or having children are given many hopes! Some of them have managed, after many attempts, to have a child thanks to the artificial insemination, to the new and revolutionary methods of insemination. In addition to this miracle some scientists have tried to manipulate the genetic code of animals and have succeeded in cloning mammals from non embrio-cells. We could speak of genetic engeneering: man deliberately alters the structure of the individual genes. These new discoveries have certainly shocked many people, in particular those who have strong religious beliefs and those who are not used to living in a perpetual changing society like ours, regard these changes as being blasfemous. They are so scores that they have already begun to prophesy apocalictic sceneries like those described by English writeres during the industrial revolution: cows and sheeps with two heads, woman who may have a child in less time, two identical persons (with the same genetic code, physical aspect and character). People of the thirties or forties generation for instance, who are only now beginning to get used to our frenetic society, consider these last events as a revolution too hard to accept. They probably have lived in a society where religion was the first value on the top of the hierarchy, people were used to accept without discussion common ideas imposed by the society. At that time people distrust science but in general what caused some changes in the tranquillity of their life. Besides the quarrel between religion and science is a peculiarity of man's history. Scientists have always tried to come to terms with the moral question: * Is it good or wrong to go against the natural course of life?*. But each time there were two opposite answers that couldn't be matched. On one side those who have religious background state that it is * morally * not right to try to change the natural course of life, to try to know what is beyond human possibility. These people then accept as inevitable their destiny, nevertheless they try to improve their condition with the powers they already have (love, trust...) On the other side together with people who don't have a particual religious belief, there are a lot of people who do their best, with all the available means to change and achieve a better condition of life without caring about moral implication. Certainly the impovements of thise technological development will not be available to everyone: first of all much time will go by before scientists will manage to put their discoveries into effect, secondly most of the times the new methods are too expensive, as a result poor people are bound not to take advantages of them. However, these researches will lead to impovements in the woman's condition during the period of gestation, many child's possible diseases may be fortold before the birth and probably doctors may do something before it is too late. Anyway these experiments are first carried out on animals, therefore some associations which try to protect them have protested many times against such rsearches, because they lead to some progress in the human life but to other creatures disadvantage. The main problem is that when science is at the service of a dictatorial power, it can reveal itself as a distructive power against man himself. We have already seen the consequencies of this collaboration during the hitlerean regime, when absurde experiments were carried out on the Jews. Their bodies were at the complete disposal of a group of * doctors * who, in the name of science, tortured them. That is the real peril: when science is in relation with a power that wants to exploit and kill a part of mankind. It may be too hazardous to speak of apocalypse and of a possible return of the nationalsocialism, our furture depends on the way the man will use this treasure given to him. We only need not to forget that the others are not to be considered as instruments but as the aim of our efforts to improve the world we live in .
