Genetic Manipulation Agar Analysis

As he moves on from his specification of genes that can be manipulated he makes a distinction of which ones should be. To him, it is all about the idea of manipulating someone’s capacity versus manipulating their life goal. He states that “A good life is had when a person’s im’portant or life-goals are matched by her capacities,” and without the required capacities certain goals cannot be accomplished. Enhancing genes, in any way, will certainly alter the person’s life goal but Agar finds no issue with this as long as that person still contains the required capacities to complete the new goal. In order for genetic manipulation to work, he argues that a broad usage of enhancements must be made. If, instead, a person’s genes are manipulated

Since a life goal requires a life/lifetime to discover this sets up an immediate problem. Speculations of various life goals can be made but if some of them are missing then determining what should be manipulated will be difficult to accomplish. Agar appears to assume that these life goals are easy to determine but given human nature this is simply not logica.l This essay often mentions the rules of natural selection but states that genetic manipulation is different because it more for the benefit of the person’s life goal and not the betterment of their species. The obvious distinction points out the flaw in uncovering all of the life goals Natural Selection’s purpose is to further evolution and the species in question, but there is not a specific reason like this for genetic manipulation. He constantly emphasizes the vast amount of life goals available and their dubious nature. Without a singular purpose in mind, there are bound to contradictions between life

Even if, somehow, there was a comprehensive list of every life goal available it would just prove the complexity of figuring out how much each gene should be affected so that all or most of the goals are available. While it may appear that increasing the creativity of a person is useful because they will then have a better chance at fulfilling multiple life goals it might render that person useless at following straightforward instructions, because they would want to find a creative solution to the problem instead, and thus they would lose the ability to become a soldier. Then, another manipulation could be made to increase the ability to stick strictly to the rules but this would, again, cause an issue in regards to art which encourages thinking outside the box. This roundabout way of enhancing certain abilities to fit a life goal ultimately means that the person in charge would eventually have to determine which skill is the best one to have. Once this is done, the idea to available to fulfill any life goal is lost and Agar’s argument is