Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Essay on the future of human genetic engineering
Social issues of genetic engineering
Impact of genetic engineering on humans
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Essay on the future of human genetic engineering
The Pros and Cons of Genetic Engineering also show that genetic engineering can lead to overpopulation and wars. First of all, in Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., everyone is the same and they have strict laws. In Harrison Bergeron, people are made to be the same by putting weights on strong people, making beautiful people wear ugly masks, and hindering smart people’s thoughts. In Jonas’ community, there is Sameness, which is making everything the
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.
As technology improves, so do human capabilities of altering nature, which in turn creates increased responsibility. This directly relates to genetic engineering, which is beginning to morph into a reality. There are advocates for both sides that convey their personal opinions about the hypothetical results, but neither is clearly superior since both arguments speculate upon an unknown future. Hungarian psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, outlines this topic in his essay “The Future of Happiness,” which focuses on the history of selective breeding and compares the goal of happiness with genetic engineering. Csikszentmihalyi alternates between viewpoints regarding genetic engineering but presents a perspective dominated by warning.
“After 4 billion years of evolution by the slow and clumsy method of natural selection, we have now evolved to the point where we can direct our own evolution” (Gattaca). Being able control genetic engineering seems like a crazy, unattainable vision. However, dystopian worlds reveal that the process of selecting desirable traits prior to birth could become a reality in the near future. Attempting to coexist in such a society would undoubtedly create many challenges. In both the film Gattaca and the novel Brave New World, genetic engineering divides society and limits the opportunities of the lower classes.
The film serves as a warning about extremes in technological advancement and genetic engineering. A society attempting to create utopia by genetically customizing reproduction introduces several questions regarding gene discrimination, expectations of
Throughout the past few hundred years, humans have been attempting to improve the human race, particularly through eugenics. The quick response is to look to science for facts to pick superior traits. The global society want the future to be smart, athletic, disease free, and happy. Education and medication could not completely solve this desire, so it went to purifying the gene pool. The American Eugenics Movement gained momentum throughout the early twentieth century and dwindled in the late 60s.
As the penman predicted, the mankind is now in the process of putting on the analogous paradigm to the control of mother nature (Mazzoni). Literally speaking, people are now engineering nature. They try to create and produce new forms of life by making interventions on the microcosmic level. With genetic modification, people climb to a new, highest level of genetics. The cloning industry as well as genetic engineering are advancing so fast that it would only take a short time until people would feel the power and would misuse them on their own account (Schumacher).
Each human individual’s destiny is already decided before they are created and they are conditioned to have the appropriate skills for the job assigned to them. The process of genetic engineering creates the population and families no longer exist. Emotional attachment to others is extinct and an individual’s value is no longer important to society.
Now that the four arguments have been explained, it is possible to find a connection between all of them. The main connection is that the genetic technology is not the problem; the problem is the underlying reductionist philosophy. Kass argues that a result of technological advances is that we have accepted a view of a man that is no more than a material being controlled by his or her genes and environment (i.e. a vision of a man without free will or the possibility of ideals) (138). Therefore, the connection between all of the arguments is that they are coming from a religious perspective. For example, recall that part of Kass’s first argument was that it would be difficult justifying saying no to new genetic technologies when there promise
Fukuyama brings up topics that can be split into two categories: risks and benefits of genetic engineering along with the affordability of genetic engineering. Considering scientists aren’t entirely sure how genes work, they bring about several ills they wouldn’t be aware of, whether they be immediate ills or ills that show up much later (Fukuyama, 678). Genetic Engineering could have horrific effects on a population which could lead to the abandoning of genetic modification, just like in the way that hydroelectricity is no longer used as much because of the potential of dam breaks or environmental effects (Fukuyama, 680). There is also a possibility that only the rich will have access to this technology, so the state would possibly have to intervene to fix this inequality (Fukuyama, 680). Fukuyama concludes his writing by posing the fact that no matter what happens with genetic engineering, genetic engineering will change the course of human history on several levels, and on levels greater than that of any human biotechnology (Fukuyama, 681).
When one hears the word Eugenics, one associates it with the terrible actions of Nazi Germany, but Germany was not the only country, which adopted the horrible social movement known as Eugenics. It took place in countries such as Great Britain, Sweden, Australia, USA and many more, all of whom introduced policies and programs such as birth control, marriage restrictions, segregation, forced abortions and sterilization, and worst of all genocide with aims to improve the human race by potentially breeding out undesired traits and ridding society of all those deemed as “unfit”. The idea of breeding out undesirable genes or traits is loaded with problematic value judgments, and the various ways that such ideas have been implemented as policy have scared many people and lead to the deaths of millions of people, therefore it undoubtedly has a bad reputation.
This can lead to genetic defects, it limits genetic diversity, and it can be taken to very extreme levels. ` To start us off, genetically engineering a baby can be very unsafe for it and lead to genetic defects. Scientists don’t know everything about the human body yet, and because of this, if we end up modifying something, it could end up affecting something important that we didn’t know about. We also can’t predict the outcome of the modification yet. Scientists could be able to possibly knock out a disease out of our genetic code, but since we don’t
In Chapter 1 of the novel Our PostHuman Future, Francis Fukuyama biotechnology and the solutions to stop the potential hazards of using biotechnology and genetic engineering. In recent discussions, a controversial issue that has been brought up is whether biotechnology, that in the future, can pose potential threats to society and affect the wellbeing of humanity. On the one hand, some argue that biotechnology and genetic engineering allows for society to prosper because you can genetically make all individuals happy and unique. For instance, in Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, society is broken up into caste systems and due to genetic engineering, the administration of soma, a drug that elicits instant happiness, and hypnopedia, members
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.
This essay will look more on the advantages and disadvantages of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering has some advantages. Firstly it allows for faster growth rate .Genetic engineering allows of plants or animals to be modified so their maturity can occur at a quicker pace outside of the normal growth conditions that are favourable without genetic changes as well .Secondly, it may also provide a cure for disease to improve health (apecsecadmin, 2014). Genetic engineering can be used to eradicate a number of incurable and deadly disease which could be done by identifying the genes that cause these disease, and manipulate them to prevent people from contracting these potentially deadly diseases.