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Ethical dilemmas in genetic engineering
Genetic engineering negative impact
Ethical issues of genetic engineering
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Every parent's dream of having the perfect baby with pretty eyes, hair, skin, and gifted abilities. Some parents have even taken drastic measures to ensure their babies are born with these gorgeous features and talents. Some parents are willing to genetically manipulate their embryos to create their perfect baby. Bio technology has allowed parents to piece together their ideal human being from their eye color to their mental and physical abilities. Genetic Manipulation in some eyes can be seen as wrong and right in the other if used for the right reasons. I believe that scientists should use this new technology for preventing birth defects and help cure serve illness among babies. I believe genetic manipulation of human offspring is wrong because it’s unethical and causes social issues.
Parents should not want to go and get their embryos altered to make the perfect baby,but accept their babies the way they are born. When parents enhance their child’s genes, they are taking away the natural genes of child and replacing with the made up ones. This makes the child not really human, but someone born to be whatever their parents wanted them to be genetically. Which in reality is really backwards,
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parents hope for their children to be the best in at whatever they do in life, not impose on them through genetic engineering to be what their parents consider the best. I believe all babies are little gifts from God and are born perfect. When parents try and play God by selecting genes to create the perfect baby, they are messing with the natural process of life. Many religions believe that parents are cheating God out of his chance to decide whether the baby is born with blue or brown eyes or blonde or brown hair(Pros and cons of genetic engineering).’’Not only are they cheating God but are killing future children. `Many of the procedures involving this process means terminating embryos to get the perfect one’’(Designer Babies para.5). Every time a parent chooses to create the perfect baby the kill many unborn in the process that could have been perfect as well. Therefore, parents are sacrificing many of their unborn babies, for just one born with blue eyes and blonde hair, not knowing the one they killed could have been the baby all alone just leaving it up to God. Some may argue that ``we have the right to terminate pregnancy why can’t we have the same right to alter their child’s genetic constitution’’(D,Souza,737)?The option to terminate pregnancy is based on many different reasons leading up to why the parent can’t afford to care of their child,which is completely different from parents paying thousands of dollars to create the ideal child.The only right being violated is the right to be an individual. ``Founders believe that the attempt to enhance and redesign of other human beings is a denial of our rights and dignity’’(D,Souza,738)’.When parents genetically enhance their babies they not only take away this right but deny the child of it as well.The time between when a baby is born to the time they get old is where they figure out who they are as a person. This time allows them to become an individual, where they figure out what makes them different from the rest of the world. When you have a world full of enhancing babies majority of them are merely the same. For example, we will have a world full blue and green eyed babies, who are all smart or very good at sports, with no diversity. This cause our world to become big on similarity and less on individuality. As humans, we grow to learn who we are, not born with them instilled in our genes from birth. The right to be an individual is important and when you genetically change ones right it is considered morally wrong. Some people fear that genetically enhance humans make superior to other humans. Society believes that enhance humans cheats other humans out of great opportunities in life, who were born smart or good at sports. The enhancements of humans makes them way smarter than not, only average but gifted humans as well causing separation among society. Also genetic engineering only allows the wealthy to genetically enhance their babies causing the lower to chance of ever being successful smaller and smaller. Lower class will work harder than ever to make out of the miserable conditions, while the upper class get breeze through life. The wealthy will not only have great genes, but a little to no chance of disabilities or diseases while the lower class suffers from diseases and disabilities (Designer Babies,para.3). Discrimination will only grow from being about race and sex to the enhanced and unenhanced humans. This will lead to a great divide among our people that could result in dangerous outcomes. For instance, the lower class might seek vengeances of the upper class due all the great health opportunity they receive, while the lower suffers in their sickness. Our world is divided enough genetically enhanced humans will only make a growing problem more enormous. Genetic engineering can make a great difference in the world when use for curing disease and conception, not trying to design babies.
From genetic engineering scientist were able to come with a reproductive medicine to help women who could not have kids, conceive and bear children(Designer baies,para.1).Genetic engineering could also help wipe out some of the most serve diseases among babies. For instant, Cystic Fibrosis is a deadly disease with no cure but through genetic engineering it can be cured (Pros and Cons of Genetic Engineering,par.1). Using genetic engineering for this purpose allow for babies to be healthy and strong, which is more important than the looks of the child.This also allows for not only more babies, but for them to live longer by curing
diseases. In conclusion the in order to get the perfect baby you sacrifice much more than unborn babies in return. The righteous thing to do is let God and nature handle the design of unborn babies not bio-technology. All babies deserve a chance to an individual and decide their own path in life. We need more unity in our society and genetic enhance humans will only create division.Humans are not perfect nut imperfect. Our perfections makes us humans. Let babies be born the way they are natural and not genetically enhance to be perfect because then they become not human at all.
A person's individuality begins at conception and develops throughout life. These natural developments can now be changed through genetically engineering a human embryo. Through this process, gender, eye and hair color, height, medical disorders, and many more qualities can be changed. I believe genetically engineering a human embryo is corrupt because it is morally unacceptable, violates the child's rights, and creates an even more divided society.
SUMMARY: Director of the Ethics Institute, Ronald M. Green, in his article “Building Baby from the Genes Up” discusses why he thinks that genetically modifying babies genes is more beneficial than destructive. He begins his article off by mentioning a story of a couple who wishe to genetically modify their baby so that they could make sure the baby would not develop the long family line of breast cancer. Green then notifies the reader that no matter where they stand on the matter, genetically modifying babies is going to become more and more popular. Even the National Institute of Health is beginning to invest in technology that can be used to genetically modify human genes. He then explains how genetically modifying human genes can be beneficial,
Many are now considering using this technology to change humans, such as developing methods that could be used to regenerate or repair faulty organs. It could be also used to find a cure for diseases such as cancer, eventually (Fitzgerald), or to repair genetic defects. Parents could choose the sex and height of their offspring and be able to have more intelligent, more athletic, and better looking children. Also, genetic engineering could also be used to clone humans (Kevles 354), a topic of much discussion of late.
What do one think of when they hear the words “Designer Babies”? A couple designing their own baby of course, and it’s become just that. Technology has made it possible for there to be a way for doctors to modify a babies characteristics and its health. Genetically altering human embryos is morally wrong, and can cause a disservice to the parents and the child its effecting.
Picture a young couple in a waiting room looking through a catalogue together. This catalogue is a little different from what you might expect. In this catalogue, specific traits for babies are being sold to couples to help them create the "perfect baby." This may seem like a bizarre scenario, but it may not be too far off in the future. Designing babies using genetic enhancement is an issue that is gaining more and more attention in the news. This controversial issue, once thought to be only possible in the realm of science-fiction, is causing people to discuss the moral issues surrounding genetic enhancement and germ line engineering. Though genetic research can prove beneficial to learning how to prevent hereditary diseases, the genetic enhancement of human embryos is unethical when used to create "designer babies" with enhanced appearance, athletic ability, and intelligence.
Scientists have edited the DNA of non- viable embryos. It is argued that it’s the first step for parents being able to design their own children. Sarah Knapton (April 23) stresses the risks of Genetic Engineering by questioning the motivations of Genetic scientists. By stating that these genetic scientists want their names in a history books. Genetic engineering implies ethical issues and safety issues. Oxford professor conducted a test. 71 embryos survived and 54 were genetically tested. 28 were spliced and some of the contained a replacement genetic material. It was found that there was unexpected mutations that shouldn’t off been effected by the technique. However, the Chinese scientist states that the embryos were non-viable. Is this a safe practice if the researchers are contradicting themselves? Universal laws guided by ideologies that help promote the health and wellbeing of society using principles of equality and justice. Equality and justice are two values that need to be incorporated in this practice to make sure the focus on genetic engineering will be utilized for life saving reasons.
People should not have access to genetically altering their children because of people’s views on God and their faith, the ethics involving humans, and the possible dangers in tampering with human genes. Although it is many parent’s dream to have the perfect child, or to create a child just the way they want, parents need to realize the reality in genetic engineering. Sometimes a dream should stay a figment of one’s imagination, so reality can go in without the chance of harming an innocent child’s life.
Although the advancement of genetic science has provided humans with the ability to choose their child’s sex, eye color, or even intelligence, some believe that it is highly immoral to commercialize this new found power. The Oxford English Dictionary defines eugenics as the science of improving the (especially human) population by controlled breeding for desirable inheritable characteristics (Suckling, 2000). The original purpose of the trait selection, called eugenics, was to check for certain disease-bearing genes. This allowed for parents to choose non-disease bearing embryos using In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) (Steere, 2008). The technology has recently been developing into detecting various other physical traits that will undoubtedly become abused by the general public if it is brought to the commercial market (Suckling, 2000).
Genetic engineering for humans would eventually destroy the human natural selection theory, that everyone brought into this world was untouched and born to be who ever they were suppose to be. But with genetic engineering, scientists would be able to change unborn children to make them for acceptable to the human world.
With all factors put into place the potential benefits of perfecting human genetic engineering far outweigh the negatives. A world with genetic engineering is a world that would be advantageous to all who undergo the procedure to positively modify their DNA. A genetically engineered human race will be able to have defeated all genetic mutations and diseases, rid humans of possible illnesses in young and unborn children, create drastically longer lifespans, and provide generations with a high quality of life. Human genetic engineering has progressed more rapidly than projected; according to Stephen Hawking, when human genetic engineering is consummated he hypothesizes, “With genetic engineering, we will be able to increase the complexity of our DNA, and improve the human race. But it will be a slow process, because one will have to wait about 18 years to see the effect of changes to the genetic code.”(Hawking). The advancements that genetic engineering will provide for the human race is incredible and we will soon benefit from science and technology more than ever
Human genetic engineering can provide humanity with the capability to construct “designer babies” as well as cure multiple hereditary diseases. This can be accomplished by changing a human’s genotype to produce a desired phenotype. The outcome could cure both birth defects and hereditary diseases such as cancer and AIDS. Human genetic engineering can also allow mankind to permanently remove a mutated gene through embryo screening, as well as allow parents to choose the desired traits for their children. Negative outcomes of this technology may include the transmission of harmful diseases and the production of genetic mutations.
The Problem Genetic engineering has been around since the 1960’s, although major experiments have not been really noticed until the 1990’s. Science comes in different forms, the two major being cloning and genetic reconstruction. Cloning is the duplicating of one organism and making an exact copy. For example, in 1996 the creation of the clone sheep named Dolly, the first mammal to be cloned, which was a great achievement. The other form, genetic reconstruction, is used to replace genes within humans to help or enhance the life of an unborn child for a medical reason or just for the preference of a parent.
In conclusion and my personal opinion, genetic engineering could lead to a technically better and more advanced world despite the fact that it suffers from deep moral downfalls. The main issue that causes debate seems to be if artificial superiority is a viable alternative to nature. It could work in society if people only used it for things such as evading cancer, but if a new social class is formed or people start creating super humans, it’s unquestionably a problem.
Science has taken another step forward into the future of mankind by empowering parents to give their children the best start possible. We are now presented the opportunity to decide what personality and features we want our kids to have before their even born. Although at first glance, it may seem amazing and feel as if you’re picking the exact candy bar you want at a convenient store. However, are we ready for mankind to play, what some might call “God”? Is messing with the genetic code in our babies morally right? Or is it wrong? These are questions being brought up towards the matter of genetically engineering our babies. Danielle Simmons mentioned in the 2008 Nature Education that “Genes influence health and disease, as well as human traits and behavior”. Well genetic engineering on human genes has been going on for a long period of time now. It has also been performed on babies of women who were having trouble conceiving to prevent birth deficiency and help produce a healthy baby. As time went on, scientist became more precise and accurate in the genetic engineering of human genes (Simmons). Scientist is now able to help parents make their baby exactly the way, they prefer. Now that we are able to engineer the genetic code in humans to this extent, we can now produce a healthier generation that will have our ideal traits and behavior.
Although genetic engineering seems to be more harmful than helpful, when used correctly, it will help the society prosper. Considering the technology our society has currently developed, genetic engineering is a difficult topic to discuss and confirm. If the researchers confirm this process, it may become easier for the scientists and will help cure the diseases easily. The debate, however, will still be on the rise because of the issue in human morals and ethics.