The Implications Of Genetic Engineering In Oryx And Crake

Genetic engineering or “genetic enhancement refers to the transfer of genetic material intended to modify nonpathological human traits” (Hanna 1). These enhancements are used to modify human embryos and during gene therapy. There are currently two different approaches to gene manipulation, embryo elimination or genetic alteration. The point being, there is a choice of either disposing of an embryo because it has a genetic defect or genetic alteration of a gene which results in removing traits or enhancing them. There are birth defects and fatal incurable diseases that need to be eliminated. Genetic engineering could pave the way to discover ways to eliminate or at least reduce them. Genetic engineering to eliminate incurable diseases and birth defects should be used because it will reduce suffering and pain for both children and their parents. There are several techniques that have advanced genetic

Unlike the gene therapy research today, which is designed to cure diseases, Crakes vaccine was designed to protect only two from a pandemic he started. Genetic engineering of humans is also utilized in Oryx and Crake inappropriately to create the Crakers during Crake’s Paradice Project. The Crakers had their genes altered to create humans with specific traits. For example, they had skin that was resistant to ultraviolet rays and the ability to purr to heal themselves. Crake,
“worked for years on the purring. Once he’d discovered that the cat family purred at the same frequency as the ultrasound used on bone fractures and skin lesions and those equipped with their own self-healing mechanism...the trick was to get the hyoid apparatus modified and the voluntary nerve pathways connected and the neocortex control systems adapted without hampering the speech abilities” (Atwood