The ethical implications of human action in nature and society do not have to be immediately obvious, and in the modification of natural processes, a certain time lag is expected for a full understanding of the consequences. The accompanying risk is particularly interesting when it comes to modifications of living matter using recombinant DNA technology. The topic of this thesis are precisely those controversies that direct us to think about the ethical aspects of such a technological breakthrough. Humanity's path from adapting to nature to adapting nature was accompanied by many insights, ways of thinking and research that are ethically questionable. Some of these realizations resulted in man's misunderstanding of the values on which human action towards man, but also towards nature, is based. In order for recombinant DNA technology to be successfully developed and established in modern science, many unethical research and violations of the dignity of life were caried out. This type of technology puts humanity on the threshold of a new type of action and scientific progress that, if guided by wrong values, can have disastrous consequences for the future of the human species. Man has always acted on nature, but this action was often on a local level. It is now possible to act on a global scale, which can have positive and negative consequences. These consequences will be determined by caution, responsibility, values and perception of life on a collective level.