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The Pros And Cons Of Genetic Engineering

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With technology surrounding genetic engineering growing much faster than expected, many moral and ethical issues that are being questioned must be answered for the future of human genetic modification to be decisively agreed upon. The leading cause for the lack of progress in determining what is ethical regarding germline engineering, a science that focuses on the genetic modification of embryos and fetuses, is the complete opposition in differing views; additionally, the lack of discussion concerning this topic does not speed up progress either. Viewpoints regarding genetically modifying embryos range from the belief that the technology should be completely available to all expecting parents, to the belief that no expecting parents should …show more content…

Skeptics believe that as this technology becomes cheaper and more available, more parents will choose to have their future child enhanced; consequently, the gene pool of a society will also be impacted. As stated by Jonathan Moreno, “There is also the prospect of ‘consumer eugenics’—eugenics driven by parental choice rather than by state order, which would have similar results to traditional eugenics, such as a multitiered social system based on certain enhancements” (Bosley, 2015, p. 481). Eugenics is defined as the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding or genetic modification to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. This is a major concern for many people because as the ability to choose the genetic and phenotypic (physical composition) traits of one’s offspring increases, individuals without desirable traits may be viewed as outcasts. In addition to creating a new way to discriminate, eugenics may, in extreme circumstances, allow a future militia to assign certain traits to offspring that could help them on the battlefield (also noted by Jonathan Moreno [Bosley, 2015 p. 481]). With a militia consisting solely of people modified to do one thing, the anticipatory and problem-solving abilities that come with a diverse group are extremely …show more content…

According to Hank Greely:
The anticipated individual health risks are off-target effects and genetic chimerism. In addition, there are also unanticipated effects of on-target changes. … In terms of enhancement, we’re so far from knowing and understanding ‘enhancing’ genes, at this point the individual benefits are asymptotic to zero. (Bosley 2015, p. 480)
Chimerism is the phenomena where an individual has two different traits where only one should be present, such as two different blood types, female organs in a male body, two sets of DNA, etc. With such substantial disorders being possible, it is a concern to skeptics that technology surrounding genetic modification is far from perfect. Another hazard is that not all research on DNA-editing techniques, such as CRISPR, is being treated with precautionary measures nor with entire concern regarding scientists’

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As a society we are adapting, changing, and growing every day. Genetic modification is happening; many people are just not aware. Genetic engineering is great for society because it can cause many new advancements for the as in world with no diseases and a world without hunger. “There is a good case for exploring all ideas relevant to our current concerns, no matter where they lead” (Pinker 533). Although no one knows how far genetic enhancing and cloning could go makes it a dangerous idea, does not mean as a society that we ignore it.

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Genetically modified embryos, test tube babies, and designer babies may seem like far out ideas that are just written about in dystopian novels such as Brave New World. Aldous Huxley’s novel describes a society where all the babies are created and born in bottles. The babies’ genes are manipulated to make smart, good looking alphas all the way down to impaired, identical epsilons. That society believes that having these social distinctions is necessary for their civilization to be in harmony and not collapse. American society today may not be too far from these “radical” ideas.

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Lerner, A. W. of Biotechnology. Detroit: Gale. argues that “Common public perception is that genetic screening and modification of human embryos is used to ensure offspring free of disease and composed of more desirable traits. ”(Lerner, 2012).

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Did you know that Pixar started off as, “Graphics Group,” in 1979 as a computer division of LucasFilm, and in 1986 it was spun off as Pixar with funding from Steve Jobs, which became a majority stockholder? Walt Disney then bought Pixar for 7.8 billions dollars, and Steve Jobs became the largest single shareholder of Disney of all time. Pixar is famous for some of the most amazing animated films; 13of their films are on the list of 50 most grossing films of all time, with Frozen coming in at 1.27 billion dollars. Does that put some perspective on the company that just came out with Inside Out? Which, by the way is currently at $363,000,000.00.

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Germline engineering is a version of genetic engineering that involves the alteration of genes of the parental gametes, or very early developed embryo to either cure or prevent disease it can also be used to enhance genes for more favorable traits. Controversy has surrounded the concept of nonmedical germline engineering since its introduction. In recent years, Julian Savulescu has been a prominent figure siding with the nonmedical germline engineering during this essay I will explain his argument in defense of the usage of germline engineering to enhance human beings and evaluate his argument with accurate responses from Michael J. Sandel along with my own educated view on disputing the

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In medicine, genetic engineering consist of inserting DNA into an organism to add a characteristic the organism did not possess, or take out a damaged part of DNA to treat a genetic disorder. Although genetic engineering, also known as gene therapy, is used to try and improve the quality of life with applications in food and medicine; the moral dilemma of gene therapy is one of playing God, considering genetic engineering changes the DNA in organisms, which can be argued that changing DNA is a job for God alone; even if it improves the quality of someone’s life by producing “better” food and prevented possible genetic disorders. The more prominent moral dilemma in genetic engineering is on the horizon as genetic engineering will be used for enhancement, such as choosing the genomes that parent’s future children have, thus creating “designer babies”. Genetic engineering is arguably the most unethical branch of biomedical engineering due to the fact that not only does it cross the treatment versus enhancement boundary but also because it is the closest to playing God that anyone has ever been by deliberately changing the makeup of human

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The use of scientific change such as eugenics has been used throughout society for millennia. While its history is quite dark, such as the use of eugenics during the Holocaust to eradicate those not Aryan, through scientific discovery, another type of eugenics was born. This new wave of eugenics more commonly known as genetic modification (GM) is a wave of eugenics created to focus on decreasing genetic irregularities rather than eliminating minorities. While GM has many benefits such as decreasing the amount of genetic disorders such as certain cancers, the term “eugenics” itself leads to a lot of societal discourse because of the governmental, extremist, and cultural associations of the term.

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Therefore, if two parents are carriers of a certain gene that will disable their child, they can modify that gene to make a child that will not have that disability. As well as some parents will have designer babies to save another child they already have with a certain disease. In this method, parents will choose their child’s blood type and such in order for them to match that other diseased child and potentially give them their blood, marrow, and even organs. Genetically modifying a child’s chance of disease ensures that a child may live a life without potential disease and disability that they may have been more prone to had their parents’ not used this method. This also ensures a healthy life for a child that had a greater potential of having a medical condition due to their parents being carriers of that particular gene.

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Proponents of genetically modifying infants overlook ethical issue; however, the benefits do not outweigh these concerns because the cost could be too much for some people, the way the genetically modifying embryos are made, and the testings on the genetically modifying embryos. Genetically modifying embryos are babies being made through technology. It could be an ethical dilemma because some people believe in having children naturally. We should care because nothing has been proven safe for making genetically modifying

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Finally, genetic modifying can allow people to live longer. You may think that this is good that people would live longer, but there some negative aspects to this. Life would be very boring of course, but more importantly, overpopulation would happen and humans would be in competition with one another since everything would now be limited. While some aspects of genetic engineering should appealing, they all most likely have a dark secret hiding within

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Just as other forms of technology continue to develop, the question now is how far will genetic modification continue to develop? Many geneticists suggest this research be put on hold in fear of genetic modification eventually leading to the practice of specifically selecting genetic characteristics of offspring, in other words, creating “designer babies” . However, if this gene-editing technique is successfully developed, diseases that are genetically dominant, such as Huntington’s diseases, polycystic kidney disease, and sickle-cell anemia can be avoided. Eliminating these common chronic life-long illnesses, which affects more than 100,000 patients yearly, can help decrease the number of patients hospitals receive daily and increase human

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Even though gene editing has the potential to remove life threatening diseases it still has huge unethical risks that out way the

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Option 1: Designer Babies What is a designer baby? Designer baby is a non-scientific but popular journalistic term that refers to gene therapy, a technique that uses genes, screening, and modifying embryos to cure hereditary diseases. The term is also used to describe a possible scenario in which scientists choose specific traits or physical characteristics (genetic-makeup) before a baby is born. This process can help to remove many genetic diseases stemmed from defects in mitochondria ("BBC - Horizon - 2005 -

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This procedure’s purpose is to switch out genes for more preferred ones, especially to improve the health of the child. Genetic engineering could permit selection of desired physical and pleasurable traits for non-medical reasons, which has created concern in some people. The process of switching out the genes of a fetus to install genes that are more preferred has brought up debate about whether or not parents should be able to alter their babies genes to make them more appealing to the parents interests. There are many different ways of looking at this procedure and in contrast to other scientific procedures it can be for greater good or for unnecessary enhancement that could potentially create problems in society. Designer babies aren’t morally correct or incorrect, but are in between depending on what it is being used for.

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Editing of the human genome in the past has been only a sight seen in dystopia works such as Brave New World. Now, genetic enhancement is a prevalent today and people are beginning to realize the issues that can arise from creating these designer babies. Gene editing can be helpful to eradicate life changing disabilities. Yet, the term disability does not correctly label these differently abled people, as the idea of what is considered disabled has changed overtime. To fully understand the consequences and implications of genetic selection and enhancement of human embryos, society must mature and declare lines of what is and is not ethically moral.

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