Finding Microbial Life in the Solar System

Some space scientists confidently expect to find microbial life, or microorganisms like bacteria, somewhere in our solar system within the next couple of decades. Candidate sites include underground on Mars, such as a deep cave that is protected from surface radiation; in the waters on Jupiter’s moon Europa; in the waters on Saturn’s moon Enceladus; in the hydrocarbons of Saturn’s moon Titan; or even in the waters of Neptune’s moon Triton. Such scenarios in which we find microbial life open doors for Buddhist approaches to shine because of Buddhism’s strong ethics for dealing with living beings.

In fact, we can find helpful Buddhist strategies simply by turning to precepts that are found similarly in every extant version of the Buddhist monastic code, known as the Vinaya. One of these precepts, found within precepts for lay Buddhists as well, forbids the harming of living beings. This is the ahiṃsā precept to which I have referred. Another of these precepts forbids monastics from disturbing the habitats of small life forms, such as bodies of water.

Together these two precepts can provide a space research ethic of default nonharm of any potential life that is found as well as an avoidance of harm to the habitats of life. These may seem like ordinary principles to you, but interplanetary exploration creates some ethical confusion, since it can be unclear which ethics remain most appropriate beyond Earth. Here Buddhism can spell out a strong ethic for the protection of life that may be found on another world and thus provide space research with welcome, effective, and clear moral guidance. Space scientists know that they are not in the business of creating morals and may appreciate this help.

Despite this Buddhist environmental strength, though, the prospect of finding microbial life creates challenges for the tradition as well. If we find microorganisms elsewhere, scientists certainly will want to peer into them under microscopes, an activity likely to result in the deaths of some of the microbes. Given Buddhism’s adherence to the value of nonharm, therefore, science could be seen at odds here with the Buddhist precept against harming others.

At the same time, however, Buddhist scriptures again and again value human lives more than other lives and encourage us to protect our human lives, since human lives can be used for realizing nirvana. So, for instance, many Buddhists will take antibiotics to cure infections despite the fact that antibiotics work by killing living beings. Therefore, and many scriptures can be used to support what I am about to say, one cogently can argue that if studying Martian microbes can reduce human suffering and cure human diseases, we should study them, even if some tiny living beings must be sacrificed in the process.

Given these two competing ethical perspectives, there is a serious moral dilemma here, and I am probing this quandary in my research project. Interestingly, as one can see, American Buddhists remain split on the issue but generally support the scientific sacrifice of microbes.

Putting American Buddhist responses together, we therefore find a most useful, practical, and cogent ethic for searching for microbial life in our solar system. In concert with scriptures, American Buddhists inform us that an appropriate ethic consists of default nonharm to microorganisms, default nonharm to the ecologies that provide these microorganisms with life, but also limited, as-respectful-as-possible collection of microbes for scientific study. Armed with this tripartite ethic, we are morally prepared to encounter tiny beings on Mars, Enceladus, or some other place.

You can find out more about American Buddhists and Martian microbes here:
The Search for Microbial Martian Life and American Buddhist Ethics