Reference no: EM133292897

Humans and Biotechnology

Genetic engineering will not stop at our crops. We can and inevitably will use this technology on ourselves. Someday we will be able to successfully cure fatal or debilitating illnesses like Tay-Sachs disorder and cystic fibrosis using gene therapy. The benefits of doing this are self-evident, especially for people afflicted with such illnesses. However, there are serious ethical and social considerations. If we successfully apply biotechnology methods to curing serious illnesses, then we can also extend these technologies to enhance ourselves. For example, we could engineer ourselves to have exceptionally strong immune systems, increased intelligence, resistance to gaining weight, ability to rapidly detoxify toxins like alcohol, etc. This would raise some big questions for us as a society.

For example, if we can manipulate our genome successfully, why would we allow babies to be born with genetic disorders? In that world, it might be considered immoral to have children in the usual way, without genetic analysis and manipulation of the fetus.

In the future, should it be encouraged and perhaps legally required to have children only with the safe guards of genetic analysis and with gene editing corrections of any known defects? Or should parents be allowed to have children without intervention, who might win or lose the genetic lottery?