Horrid Future of Genetic Engineering, Essay Example

Genetic engineering has long been regarded in a way as a “tabu” science due to the fact that it often involves changing the genetic makeup of individuals and therefore interferes with the normal conception and growth process that babies have. For this reason many still question whether genetic engineering should even be a topic to be discussed as it portrays a side of science that many people often like to avoid. The fact of the matter is that if scientists gained the ability to effectively mutate the genetic makeup of their fetus then thousands of diseases could be avoided and the longevity of the entire world population would significantly increase. If we analyze this concept, at first glance it seems like the perfect idea; change babies and you might be able to make them live forever. Live forever sounds like an advancement that we should strive for but when we look deeper into it, we find that this could effectively lead us to our doom. The world population has exponentially increased over the last couple of centuries. As found in books such as Brave New World the continuing growth of the population is something that should be given particular interest as it has the potential to eradicate the world of all the vital resources needed to survive and maintain many more generations. Within this article the science communities al around the world had opted to wait until people determined it moral to interfere with the genetic makeup of embryos with known malformations or genetic defects. Despite this waiting period that many people had proposed the Chinese decided they would go ahead and take it upon themselves to conduct this research. As they conducted the research they ultimately landed on what had been feared by many scientists; complete failure and disappointment with no true gain from conducting this research on all the embryos they used.

Genetic engineering without a doubt plays a very significant role in the field of biology throughout various different aspects. On one side, this genetic engineering could lead to humans having immunity for many deadly diseases and disorders that cannot be treated medically in any possible way. On the other side, genetic engineering has great potential for creating biological weapons that can potentially be as strong, or stronger than nuclear weapons due to the nature of their atomic makeup. Such weapons can be both silent and deadly. One of these theoretical alternatives of these weapons that could be produced is found within the book Inferno where a massive biological weapon is used in order to make a certain population sterile and in that way control the daunting exponential growth of world population. Genetic engineering takes it upon itself to alter the very much typically known processes in biology such as mitosis, cell division, cell replication, and the way in which RNA works by taking pieces out and entering the desired pieces in these cells so that the new genetic makeup will be found throughout the cells of the entire body. Since cells make up the entire body, the capability to change cells would enable us to change an organism entirely into what the desired outcome for the organism is.

As aforementioned, genetic engineering is a very controversial subject and is considered very much out of the ordinary as it deals with altering an individual even before they are born. This field will find immense religious obstacles as in many religions it is forbidden to alter the creation that the creator has made, and make it fitting to what the person altering it wants. The number of years that it will take for society to be in accordance with the genetic engineering processing tests in embryos will most likely be very long and is nowhere near the proximal future. Because of this societal imposition brought upon by the people many scientists will likely conduct these experiments underground meaning without any governmental approval until they get the results that they strive to obtain. Ultimately, the true gain for society from genetic engineering is difficult to be seen as we also have to acknowledge the growing world population that continues to use more and more non-renewable resources. As mentioned within the article the ultimate gain that many of the scientists conducting this research should strive for is the approval from the people. Before this approval is given the growth of this research will ultimately stop at some point or another and may even be eradicated.

In my own personal opinion genetic engineering should not be done as it alters an already perfect creation that is in fact the epitome of the creations within this world. Genetic engineering might lead to the avoidance of some disease but seeking to prevent all the diseases in this world is just a very unintelligent thought. This is due to the fact that new diseases are always emerging, and old ones mutate and become dangerous once again which would make the altered embryos more susceptible to becoming slain from as simple mutated disease such as a common cold. In the case that all diseases could be avoided and a person could live on for numerous years we still have to consider the fact that the human population is already exceeding its carrying capacity and that this would only lead to a far greater increase which would most definitely have detrimental damage on the non-renewable resources in the world. Even the renewable resources would be affected finding that they are being used up far too quickly for efficient renewal. Genetic engineering could also lead to scientists obtaining embryos from unconventional and dark ways such as paying mothers to abort their babies. All of these implications give proof to the negative results that would come about as a result of continual use of genetic engineering. The world we find ourselves in today is most definitely not ready to take on such as drastic research approach on embryos. It is possible that this research may never even be needed as the results that it brings are more negative than positive.

Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/health/chinese-scientists-edit-genes-of-human-embryos-raising-concerns.html?ref=topics&_r=0