Genetic Engineering In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

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Imagine a world in which parents had the ability to choose what their future child would be like: from the they would look, to their intelligence, even their personality would be chosen before the child was born. The reality is, these advancements in genetic engineering could occur in the near future. In the 1932 dystopian novel “Brave New World”, by Aldous Huxley, genetic engineering (the process of altering an embryo’s DNA) is a key component to maintaining society. Humans are genetically engineered to look, think, work, and interact with others in a certain way in order to fill specific roles in the economy.Genetic engineering is entirely possible today, but not on as large a scale as in “Brave New World”. Because of current technology, …show more content…

It lists the advantages and disadvantages of genetic engineering. The article claims that although human genetic engineering would help cure diseases, “it is of serious concern that the cons may far outweigh the pros...since the editing process is costly…(and) there is always the chance that disrupting one gene may disrupt large signalling pathways, leading to cell damage…(and lastly,) some scientists condemn gene editing on ethical grounds ” The editing process costs about $1million, which is much more than most people can afford. Gene therapy could cause gaps between the wealthy and the poor. Affluent people wouldn’t have genetic diseases, whereas people with less money would. Gene therapy isn’t the only form of human genetic engineering. The “ethical” debate is focused on gene editing that modifies embryos to be more advanced, enhancing the physical aspects of the future child including eye color, height, facial structure, and more. Diversity might not exist if parents could choose how their children were to look. This could permanently and irreversibly change human

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