Is The Metamorphosis In The Novel: 20, 000 Leagues Under The Sea

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Change and evolution are the basic tenets of life, inevitable and relentless. Right from the time Aristotle declared the earth to be spherical to Charles Darwin being declared a heretic for espousing the theory of evolution; man has resisted change even while embracing it. The fantasies of yesterday are facts of today –consider –Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne and the existence of almost exact working submarines a century, later. Similarly mankind feels threatened by the looming spectre of Eugenics and the possibility of ‘Gattaca’ – a science fiction movie, focusing on the future of gene selection and modification – becoming a reality in the coming years. DNA modification has been developing rapidly and is here to stay. All those who cry ‘hubris’ should accept this fact as inevitable and ensure that it is treated with due and considered debate, instead of volatile hype. Whether the benefits outweigh the risks is a moot point, as it is our responsibility to see that they do. It is our duty that we ensure its use for repair and not enhancement. The furor in recent times over ethical and scientific implications of gene modification is because of CRISPR/Cas9 – Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats /CRISPR associated protein 9 nuclease. This development facilitates precise, targeted changes to genomes of …show more content…

The modification of human genomes to cure diseases is just one forward step and necessary – modified Herpes virus to cure skin cancer, modified HIV virus to fight leukemia, modified measles virus to fight blood cancer. Gene modifications to fight Alzheimer’s and weed out genes like BRACA (breast cancer gene) in utero. However, many considerations have to be taken to account – patenting of GMOs is legal since 1980 in the U.S., so, if a human gene is modified who holds the ownership – the individual or the organization? Clear laws enabling ownership by humans should be