Alexandra Jimenez
We all want our [future] kid to grow up perfectly healthy and not have to live in a hospital, but life happens. Sometimes it’s our fault as parents, but sometimes it is just our genes and there is nothing we can do about it because most of the times it is a one in four chances of passing down a genetic marker. Of course, if we could prevent these disease to be passes down, we would do anything for it, but how far is it ethically okay?
This article begged the question, "Do we need an international body to regulate Genetic Engineering?" There are two places in the world, currently, where it is legal to do testing in genetic modification. Canada has created “lab-made” mosquitos to stop the spread of mosquito borne illnesses. They deemed it ethically legal and safe for humans and the environment. But months after they were released, they ended up crossing the border into US land causing issues to be brought up and it is not legal in the United States to do genetic testing and modifying. “If modern science can defy the boundaries of borders, who exactly should be charged with deciding what science to unleash upon the world?” Something similar just happened in the United Kingdom, the government gave scientists the okay to genetically modify embryos. Brown argues that it risks “opening up Pandora’s box of designer babies and genetically engineered super-humans.” In 2015, it was approved to use gene editing tech to stop mitochondrial disease genes from being passed on from mother to children. Last February, the United Kingdom passed the first, in the world, license to research and modify healthy embryos. The National Intelligence Council argued in a report that “How people think about the very nature of life and how people love and hate is likely to be challenged by major technological advances in understanding and efforts to manipulate human anatomy, which will spark strong divisions between people, country and regions.” Should we or should we not be able to modify our DNA? I understand why the idea of being able to take away diseases and cancer genes from our future generations but how far will it actually go? Will it bring up the question of whether we should be able to pick what we want our children to look like? What abilities they have? What abilities they shouldn’t have? Will we be able to build the perfect children? Who has a say in this? I choose to believe that everything happens for a reason and that we all play a role is the development of our future and the next generations future. But I do not agree with messing with mother nature and making people from test labs. That is what our future is looking like, a bunch of robots, we as robots with genetically modified tech in our bodies. We will lose what makes us human. There is already enough harm with plastic surgery, and now people want to modify our core DNA. There needs to be an agency to regulates these types of experiments before they get out of hand.
11 Comments
Jose B Sanchez-Garcia
2/10/2017 07:33:06 pm
Hi Alexandra,
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Vic Arreola
2/10/2017 11:35:38 pm
Hello Alexandra,
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Alan Garcia
2/15/2017 01:11:55 am
When I first read the title, not going to lie, it made me think of Hitler and how he would have killed for this research. But getting to main point, who really care if you change the way that genetics work. We have already played god and tried to alter so many other objects to benefit the human population. What are your basing your opinion on? Does it have to do with religious reason or basing them for scientific reasons.
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Araceli Gopar
2/17/2017 03:07:02 pm
Hello Alexandra,
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Yarely Chino
2/22/2017 05:40:37 pm
Hey Alexandra,
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Samuel Villavicencio
2/24/2017 09:26:49 pm
Hey Alex,
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5/9/2017 01:00:13 am
Alexandra,
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Samuel
5/15/2017 04:55:43 pm
You pose very good questions throughout your post. What do we do from here? How far does it go? Call me old fashioned, but I am not a fan of the designer baby idea. One part of it, even in the case of preventing disease, is that the technology is expensive and therefore only reasonably accessible by the affluent. Moreover, aesthetic value in itself does not serve as a good reason to implement the technology.
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Tommy Ha
5/16/2017 02:41:01 pm
Alexandra,
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5/20/2017 02:56:22 pm
I guess when it comes to designer babies, I am very old fashioned. I am not sure if I should call this old fashioned or just natural. Child birth is natural and the womens ability to make a baby her womb is natural. Although the process of baby growth inside the womb is not always perfect, there are miscarriages, diseases, etc. but this is why there is need for stem cell research. This can open many doors in finding cures for these diseases.In my opinion we as humans should not steer away from natures path.
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Cammron Keehley
5/20/2017 10:01:18 pm
Alex,
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AuthorHello! I'm 19 years old. i'm a 3rd year Communication Design major with an emphasis is visual design and a minor in Business Marketing. Archives
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