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How genetic engineering could impact the future of the human race
Eugenics ethical issues
Eugenics abstract summary
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Enter here 11Every four and a half minute a baby is born with a birth defect. Birth defects are structural changes present at birth and can affect nearly any part of the baby’s body. How harm fall a birth defect is often is determined by what part of the body is affected. The life span of the child can be effected determined by what part of the baby was affected. They can occur as bodily changes and as internal damages. They can happen at any time of the pregnancy but occur most often in the first three months as the babies organs are forming. The causes for many birth defects are unknown, but if someone else in the family was born with them then there is a higher risk. As genetics have been linked to some birth defects. Having the ability …show more content…
It has been seen in the past in selective breeding, which is when someone cross breeds two species of animals or plants to get a stronger breed. This is will good intention to try and make things better and stronger. There is often a negative side effect when someone tries to incorporate Eugenics with the human race. What happens is that it often become a race based genocide. It was Hitler’s goal to make a supreme race among men. This led him and the Nazis to kill millions of innocent Jews. Hitler was not the only one to commit genocide attempting to make a superior race similar genocides have taken place in Armenian, Cambodia, and the Balkans. These were all violent and deadly attempts to make a stronger and better population. These are obviously unethical and immoral acts committed by man. It once again comes down to, it there are any application for which this that can be used in an ethical manor. It can be as long as it is making everyone stronger and not using any ethnic or racial biases when in …show more content…
Genetic engineering has other possible implications for humans other that solving illness or trying to make a stronger human being. Christians must look at the values that the bible teaches and use them to guild them to what is right. The bible clearly states that you should not kill another so using Eugenics in a race manor and eliminating a certain race would clearly be unethical. There are other morals that the bible sets for Christians that can help christen scientist when the work with these controversial topics. They sometimes use embryos from abortions. This can be hard to do for christens, that believes that abortions are wrong. This is why some have attempted to find a way to use other cells and get the same results from them. Fortunately there is some promise from research, however they are still far away from being in laboratories as they need to learn more about the new technique. With the advance of technology scientist can learn how to help society in an ethical manor. They have to be care not to pass the line with curiosity and go beyond what is
The American Eugenics Movement was led by Charles Davenport and was a social agenda to breed out undesirable traits with an aim of racial purification. Eugenics was a used to breed out the worst and weakest to improve the genetic composition of the human race, and advocated for selective breeding to achieve this. The science of eugenics rested on simple mendelian genetics, which was a mistake because they were assuming complex behaviors could be reduced to simple mendelian genes. After Nazi Germany adopted the ideas behind the American eugenics movement to promote the Aryan race, the eugenics movement was completely discredited.
The idea of eugenics was first introduced by Sir Francis Galton, who believed that the breeding of two wealthy and successful members of society would produce a child superior to that of two members of the lower class. This assumption was based on the idea that genes for success or particular excellence were present in our DNA, which is passed from parent to child. Despite the blatant lack of research, two men, Georges Vacher de Lapouge and Jon Alfred Mjoen, played to the white supremacists’ desires and claimed that white genes were inherently superior to other races, and with this base formed the first eugenics society. The American Eugenics Movement attempted to unethically obliterate the rising tide of lower classes by immorally mandating organized sterilization and race based experimentation.
The history of harmful eugenic practices, spurring from the Nazi implementations of discrimination towards biologically inferior people has given eugenics a negative stigma (1,Kitcher, 190). Genetic testing, as Kitcher sees it through a minimalistic perspective, should be restrained to aiding future children with extremely low qualities of life (2,Kitcher, 190). He believes that genetic engineering should only be used to avoid disease and illness serving the role of creating a healthier human race. He promotes laissez-faire eugenics, a “hands off” concept that corresponds to three components of eugenic practice, discrimination, coercion and division of traits. It holds the underlying works of genetic testing, accurate information, open access, and freedom of choice. Laissez-faire eugenics promises to enhance reproductive freedom preventing early child death due to genetic disease (3,Kitcher, 198). However there are dangers in Laissez-faire that Kitcher wants to avoid. The first is the historical tendency of population control, eugenics can go from avoiding suffering, to catering to a set of social values that will cause the practice of genetics to become prejudiced, insensitive and superficial. The second is that prenatal testing will become limited to the upper class, leaving the lower class with fewer options, creating biologically driven social barriers. Furthermore the decay of disability support systems due to prenatal testing can lead to an increased pressure to eliminate those unfit for society (4,Kitcher, 214).
In the 1920s, a company in New York started a movement known as “The Eugenics Movement.” The idea of eugenics was eventually picked up by Germany, China, Peru, India and Bangladesh. The movement is still in effect till this day; however, it is not as prevalent as it once was.
One of the most necessary uses of genetic engineering is tackling diseases. As listed above, some of the deadliest diseases in the world that have yet to be conquered could ultimately be wiped out by the use of genetic engineering. Because there are a great deal of genetic mutations people suffer from it is impractical that we will ever be able to get rid of them unless we involve genetic engineering in future generations (pros and cons of genetic eng). The negative aspect to this is the possible chain reaction that can occur from gene alteration. While altering a gene to do one thing, like cure a disease, there is no way of knowing if a different reaction will occur at the cellular or genetic level because of it; causing another problem, possibly worse than the disease they started off with (5 pros and cons of gen. eng.). This technology has such a wide range of unknown, it is simply not safe for society to be condoning to. As well as safety concerns, this can also cause emotional trauma to people putting their hopes into genetic engineering curing their loved ones, when there is a possibility it could result in more damage in the
Society is changing every second; thus, society’s opinions on morals and ethics are changing every second, too. In the past, society believed and supported the ideas of eugenics and eugenicists. Today, however, eugenics is blamed for the racial and gender presumptions about genetics. Two well-known eugenicists are Lewis Terman and David Starr Jordan, who each contributed their ideas to further the movement of eugenics. Typically, schools are often named after people who have made positive contributions to society, and these two figures of eugenics have only demoralized certain races and genders. As a result, schools should not be named after these two people because the names illuminate ideas towards stereotypes and racism. While some may consider
Eugenics is known as selective breeding in order to produce the most desirable traits and eliminating the negative ones. It has been a controversial subject in science for many years. Its negative implications mostly come from its early form in the United States by forced sterilization of women and men with “undesirable” traits and its later use in Nazi Germany during World War II. Modern eugenicists argue that new age eugenics does not seek to eradicate unwanted traits but instead improve the species making people as intelligent and healthy as possible (Taylor 114). Modern eugenics is divided into two categories: positive eugenics—the improvement one’s own genetic make-up—and negative eugenics—the removal of genetic disorders. Why should the public care? Eugenics has and continues to be one of the most controversial topics in the science community. Although eugenics today has better intentions than in the past, the negative aspects of it in terms of ethics and diversity outweigh the small possibility of a favorable outcome (Hix 17).
Since the conception of eugenics, scientist and scholars looked for many ways to improve or wipe out human characteristics that prevent the progression of evolution in the human race. Originally, eugenics was the study of improving the human race by exterminating people who don’t fit the stereotypical white purity ideology. Its this kind of ideology that influenced Nazi Germany to carry on their heinous atrocities known as the holocaust. Some of the ideas behind eugenics also influenced legislation, which created segregation laws, marriage restrictions and forced sterilization here in the United States before World War II. Scientist saw eugenics as a solution to alleviate many underlying social problems in society like alcoholism, crime and poverty. This idea first came about in California, in the early 1900s, which was leading the American eugenics movement at the time. Behind this movement where some of the nations most respected scientist with prestigious academic back rounds (such as Stanford and Harvard) and race scientist who adapted race theories with invalid data to push their racist eugenic agenda. If it weren’t for rich upcoming entrepreneurs at the time, there would be no funding for the research behind eugenics. Rich corporations like the Carnegie Institution, Rockefeller Foundation and the Harriman railroad fortune all helped finance the research on eugenics. Each of these rich contributors took part in engaging the eugenic movement in many ways. For example, the Carnegie institution set up a laboratory in Long Island, New York that stored millions of index cards with information of Americans, so researchers can start to plot the separations of families and people as a whole. They also manipulated legislature and soci...
If a limit is not set between using genetic engineering for treatment and using genetic engineering for enhancement, then many parents could use it purely for eugenic purposes. This could cause ethical concerns but social concerns as well. If this was allowed to occur, it would also give the rich even more advantages than they already have to begin with and drive the social classes even farther apart. The use of genetic engineering may also lead to genetic discrimination. As in the movie Gattaca, a person could easily get a print-out of his or her genotype, this information could then be used by schools, employers, companies, and others; giving rise to a new form of discrimination based on a person’s genetic profile. As the world is already full of discrimination, genetic engineering would even increase the numbers of discrimination against people.
As the rate of advancements in technology and science continue to grow, ideas that were once viewed as science fiction are now becoming reality. As we collectively advance as a society, ethical dilemmas arise pertaining to scientific advancement, specifically concerning the controversial topic of genetic engineering in humans. Human genetic engineering increasingly causes dissonance between various groups of scientific and religious groups of people in regards to if we should or should not ‘play god’ and attempt to modify humans for the better of the race. First, let’s take a look at what exactly genetic engineering is; according to, yourgenome.org, “Genetic engineering refers to the direct manipulation of DNA to alter an organism’s
Eugenics is the science that studies the improvement of the human species through genetics and to advance the genetic makeup of human populations through scientific methods for human perfection, It is important to analyze this science because there are two types of eugenics in which they classified as Eugenics Positive and Eugenics Negative , positive is the identification of good genes and therefore the improvement of the species and the negative is the removal of the carriers of physical and mental defects, the key is poor understanding of the value of human life. However, the fundamental problems of eugenics, goes beyond, because it brings with it some serious consequences like the manipulating our genes brings the loss of our originality,
The study of eugenics has been around for many years. China runs the largest and most successful eugenics program in the world. This is becoming more common and accepted by many people. However, simply because it is accepted does not make it right. Eugenics comes from the Greek word meaning “good” or “well born”. It is the belief that some people are genetically superior to others; and that one inherits their relatives’ mental and psychological traits. Eugenics started off as a positive theory, encouraging educated people (positive eugenics) to bear more children and raise them in a constructive manner, but has become a negative theory threatening the sterilization of people with unwanted traits (negative eugenics).
Eugenics has had a very bad history, for example Hitler killing six million Jews or in Australia where the government decided to start killing the aboriginal race. Killing people that are considered « inferior « will destroy some of our species and then all humans will become the same, with very similar characteristics.
New technological advances are being mad every day, especially in genetics. With great innovations comes concerns whether it will have a good cause or be used for bad intentions. One of these is eugenics, the idea to improve genetic composition in humans most specifically in future fetuses. The idea started in 1883 by Sir Francis Galton who wanted to selectively breed humans using desired traits to create a perfect human race. This lead to many unethical moments in history such as the sterilization of unfit humans in the 19th century as well as Hitler’s use of eugenics during WWII. However, current use helps identify possible inherited diseases/conditions in unborn children and remove those traits from the DNA. Although eugenics has been used
The moral conflicts put aside, the process of genetic engineering is difficult. Changing the proteins in people’s body differently is an unnatural action. Scientists state that genetic engineering only works 50% of the time. Also, when a new gene is placed in the gene code, there will be various mutations that will definitely result in change but may not be for the better.