Essay on Gen Engineering

Free Gen Engineering papers

geology
Physical changes in the land, soil, water, and air, associated with industrialization directly and indirectly affect the biological environment. Direct impacts include deaths of plants, animals, or people, caused by mining activity or contact with toxic soil or water from mines. Indirect impa

geology
Physical changes in the land, soil, water, and air, associated with industrialization directly and indirectly affect the biological environment. Direct impacts include deaths of plants, animals, or people, caused by mining activity or contact with toxic soil or water from mines. Indirect impa

"Those who are ignorant to history are destined to repeat it." Although genetic engineering is an entirely new field, it brings up issues, especially in eugenics, that society has previously had to deal with. It gives people the power to change many aspects of nature and could result in a lot of life-saving and preventative treatments. However, if this power is misused or abused, the damage could be very great. Therefore, although genetic engineering is a field that should be explored, it needs to be strictly regulated and tested before being put into widespread use. Some say that people have been trying to change and manipulate nature for many years and that genetic engineering is only an expansion of what has been done. They feel that whatever genetic engineering allows us to do, it is just a natural step in the process. However, in the past, people have been limited by nature and the boundaries that it has set. Until now, people have never had the capability of getting past these boundaries completely. Although occasionally the species boundary has been crossed, nature has set its limits. For example, scientists have been able to cross the horse and donkey to create the mule, but its reproduction has been restricted by it being sterile. With genetic engineering, however, changes can be made at the genetic level and these limits could be completely ignored. If a limit is not set between using genetic engineering for treatment and using genetic engineering for enhancement, then many parents could use it purely for eugenic purposes. One survey done by researchers showed that eleven percent of couples would abort a child predisposed to obesity. With genetic engineering they could decide to substitute their child’s undesirable characteristics for more desirable ones in order to "customize" their children. This could not only cause ethical concerns but social concerns as well. If this was allowed to occur, it would also give the rich even more advantages than they already have to begin with and drive the social classes even farther apart. The use of genetic engineering may also lead to genetic discrimination. In the future a person could easily get a print-out of his or her genotype. This same information could then be used by schools, employers, insurance companies, and others, giving rise to a new form of discrimination based on a person’s genetic profile. Already, insurance companies and others are using information from genetic tests or a person’s genetic background for discrimination. One survey of people who are at risk for certain diseases showed that 455...