...Ethical Dilemmas of Genetic and Reproductive Sciences One of the biggest ethical debates surrounding genetic and reproductive sciences is abortion. When parents decide to have genetic testing done, the results may require them to make a decision whether continue with the pregnancy or to terminate. Even for a wanted pregnancy, the decision to terminate a baby who has the potential for a disability is devastating and stressful. There are arguments against prenatal testing and abortion regarding the ethicality. Arguments generally revolve around fetal rights and disability rights (Stapleton, 2017). According to Stapleton (2017), the option for abortion may be provided based on the results of genetic testing, therefore, being unethical in...
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...Genetic therapy vs Genetic enhancement (P282) The woman with the spiky hair recognized him and yelled at him, ‘Leave playing God to God’” One of the most controversial discussions there has been in genetics, is whether the use of genetic therapy or genetic enhancement are moral permissible or not. On one side, there is the genetic therapy which uses genetic research to cure an illness. In the novel ‘Sister’ by Rosamund Lupton, there is a big example of this, since the sister of the protagonist, Tess, dies after being injected with a gene that was supposed to save his baby from Cystic Fibrosis. On the other side, there is the genetic enhancement which is considered to be good because it pushes people to fill their greatest potential. Yet, the latest is not legal and for that reason in the novel the scientist who uses this practice risks the lives of most of its protagonists. And Lupton adds yet another source of tension into this tingling welter of unknowns: she uses technology not as a deus ex machinabut as a kind of diabolus in machina. Early on, Bee reveals that Tess took part in an experimental medical trial to cure her baby in utero of the cystic fibrosis that killed their brother. The unsettling science behind this procedure accompanies the narrative like an unsmiling doctor in a white lab coat, injecting a mood of anxious uncertainty. Initially Bee, “wearing my full older-sister uniform,” had counseled Tess against the treatment; but it had worked. Hearing that news from...
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...E Poole Beecham English 101 10059 19 April 2010 Genetic Testing Imagine choosing your daughter to have high intelligence. No one would fault the parents for giving their daughter this advantage for life. Parents can make the decision to use any safe drug or therapy to enhance their future children to make them smarter, better, stronger, to increase their intelligence, height, or other traits (Zane). Testing for medical tendencies to screen and reduce the possibility of future illness or diseases is now feasible. Genetic testing can enhance and improve lives with immeasurable benefits. The rewards of this testing outweigh any reservations. Genetic testing are examinations of blood and other tissues of the body that doctors in the medical field prepare to test for possible defects of the body. These DNA based tests generally involves direct examination of the DNA molecule itself and are very sophisticated techniques of testing genetic disorders in the bodies of human beings. Prenatal genetic testing with the procedure of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD is a technique whereby testing is performed of an approximate three-day-old embryo to confirm that it does not carry a particular disease or diseases (Naik). The test predicts, with variable confidence, what the possible medical problems will be in the future. Then the doctor implants this embryo, which is free of that syndrome, in the mother's womb. It appears to be relatively easy to check the DNA and eliminate...
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...interrogation techniques to extract information from suspected terrorists. The argument in Essay 161 is that waterboarding and other severe interrogation methods constitute as torture, and are not effective. Therefore, we should find alternative solutions to extract information. The argument in Essay 172 is that severe interrogation methods are necessary to save the lives of hundreds or thousands of innocent lives. Therefore, we should reject the arguments made by those against severe interrogation methods. In this paper, I will evaluate each of these arguments and furthermore say which argument is stronger with evidence. Enhanced interrogation methods refers to the U.S government’s program of systematic torture of detainees by the Central Intelligence Agency (and others) authorized by the George W. Bush administration.3 Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water is poured over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized suspect, causing the individual to experience the sensation of drowning. Waterboarding can cause extreme pain, dry drowning, damage to lungs, brain damage from oxygen deprivation, and other physical injuries including broken bones due to struggling against restraints, lasting psychological damage, and death.3 Whether waterboarding should be classified as a method of torture or not since it was authorized in 2014. The arguments in the following essays try to address both sides of the argument, respectively. In Essay 16 “Torture:...
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...Philosophy Final Paper For this paper I chose the topic of gay marriage. I chose gay marriage because I know that there has been a lot of controversy over the subject. People either say gay marriage is unnatural, immoral, and wrong or to not let them marry is discrimination and not equal treatment. The first article is arguing for gay marriage and the second article is arguing against it. While both articles give some good arguments, the first article is definitely the stronger of the two. I myself am against gay marriage, but both of these articles pose good points, but also some flaws. The first article I read was from USA Today arguing that the problem with not allowing gay marriage is that it’s not equal treatment. They start out the article with giving a premise saying that traditionalist only see marriage in religious terms and that they say by common definition, marriage involves a man and woman. I think this argument is weak because the premise isn’t really supporting the conclusion, its just saying that a certain group of people thinks that way. After this they propose the premise saying that judges look at marriage as far from a religious matter and that the state gives married couples privileged treatment under law. I think this premise is weak because it doesn’t really explain how they homosexuals are treated unequal, it’s just saying what privileges married couples get. Next he goes on to give the premise that homosexual couples, even some together 20-30 years...
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...explanations of a hard-wired evolutionary trait (179). I reject this argument. While Ruse and Wilson are undoubtedly correct in believing that mankind's capacity for moral reasoning is a result of natural selection pressure and that most ancient moral laws have an evolutionary basis, I believe that describing the genesis of moral reasoning in this way provides no information about the content of our moral beliefs now. While our capacity for moral reasoning may have evolved for the purpose of informing our otherwise unjustifiable acts with a sense of objective certitude, it is not hard to imagine that this capacity, once evolved, would be capable of much more than simply rubber stamping mankind's collective genetic predisposition. In this paper, I will use the example of an evolutionary explanation against intentional killing for personal gain to argue for the existence of a disconnect between evolutionary biology and ethics. Ruse and Wilson might argue that human beings evolved with a genetic predisposition against murder for convenience. It is easy to see how this might be true. A person who kills others for convenience must live apart from society and apart from potential mates or else must be killed by society. This epigenetic rule �predisposes us to think that certain courses of action are right and certain courses of action are wrong (180).� These motivate ethical premises which �are the peculiar products of genetic history� and can �be...
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...HGP? What are gene patenting and the potential arguments for and against gene patenting? What are my thoughts about the Human Genome Protect and why this was an important projected between the National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Energy for a 13 year period. The Human Genome Project was started in 1990, it was supposed to last for 15 years but it only took 13 years complete since the technology was more advanced and accelerated. The goals the National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Energy were trying to figure out from this project were to identify all the gene in the human DNA, determine the sequence that make up the pairs of the DNA, store information in databases, improve tools for the analysis for the data, transfer related technologies to a private sector, and address the ethical, legal, and social issues that might arise from this project. Some of the ethical, legal and social issues were the fairness of who would be able to have access for genetic information, who owns the privacy and the confidentiality of this genetic information, the reproductive, clinical, health and environmental issues. The National Institutes of Health and U.S. Department of Energy has dedicated between 3-5% of the annual budgets to study the ethical, legal and social issues that surrounded the availability information for genetics. When it comes to gene patenting inventors have to follow; identify the novel genetic...
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...Genetic Testing and the Human GMO The controversies surrounding genetic testing, patenting and the modification of genes both as used in disease treatment and genetic enhancement are on the verge of becoming larger realities. I Intro The initial draft of the Human Genome project is now completed, giving access to the DNA sequences of a human. But it is not the genetic information that is shared that has come under the greatest degree of interest. Rather, the estimated .001% of variance in the genetic code is the subject of recent and expanding controversy; it is our difference not similarities that are most subject to controversy. One such controversy involves the genetic screening of potential employees, to spot potential problematic areas in their genetic make up. Similarly insurance companies may screen clients before deciding what category of clientele to put them in based on genetic risk factors. But the greatest controversies come with the fact that our genetic make up is alterable. There is substantial research being done on how human diseases can be treated using genetic procedures to replace faulty genes, but who stands to profit from this and what are the potential risks? Furthermore, can a treatment based on human genetic information (which is shared by all) be subject to the same patent laws as are other commonly used medicinal tools and methods? And perhaps the most controversial is the prospect of enhancing humans using genetically fostered techniques...
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...Genetic testing a medical test carried out to identify changes within genes, proteins or chromosomes. Genetic testing is done on participants who are known to be at risk or a particular genetic condition or disease. This information can be seen within an individual’s family history. This test is useful to determine the change people passing on or developing a genetic disorder. Genetic testing is voluntary. The three main types of genetic testing include; Molecular genetic tests, chromosomal genetic tests and biochemical genetic tests. Genetic screening is a test carried out primarily on unborn children (embryos) to identify a current genetic disease or early detection of a genetic disease. This test is available to a transection of people...
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...Profiling: Private and Personal Information The topic of ownership and sharing policies of DNA profiling results is a controversial topic amongst individuals, families, doctors, and employees. Individuals should possess ownership of their genetic information. From a legal, ethical, and social standpoint, it is wrong to force someone, unwillingly, into sharing their DNA. Socially, the release of one’s DNA may cause tension and angst between family members. Legally, it is unrealistic to assume that shared genetic information will always end up in the right hands. Many argue over who is legally responsible for test results. Aside from laws regarding doctor patient confidentiality, individuals should the legal owner of their results....
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...technologies has made information from all over the world easily accessible with just the click of a button. The development of information technology as influence new and creative developments through the storing and sharing of data. Today, information technology has even impacted science. Through the use of information technology, data collected by scientists across the country and even the globe can be stored and accessed for further research by other scientists. New technologies have been developed that aid...
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...Ethics, What is it? Merriam-Websters dictionary defines it as “The discipline dealing with what is good and bad with moral duty and obligations.” Yet, if we look at many of the things we take for granted today, they remain available to us because of certain unethical and immoral activities that occur. Lets look at two very controversial issues that have come up today; water boarding and genetic engineering. Is water boarding a form of torture or not? Both sides bring a valid argument to the table. Is genetic engineering socially acceptable or not? Is it a form of acceptance in this new age society? I think that water boarding is ethical and is a successful way of getting a subject to come forth with information withheld, whereas genetic engineering is something which is unethical and immoral. Water boarding is a method used to extract information and is sometimes also referred to as a “torture method”. This approach has been under scrutiny since its introduction in the late 14th century. The method, originally called “water torture” or “water cure”. At that time period it was a way of water induced confession. Today, the methods have changed slightly but the objective is still the same. In today's military, our special forces use this tactic in their SERE (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape) training to prepare for any unorthodox treatment they would receive from enemy forces not complying with the Geneva Convention. The CIA also has used this and is currently using this as...
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...negative characteristics of genetic research in the 1990’s and beyond. The authors use ethical principles, case studies, and opinion poles from various age groups to assemble public reaction to what is emerging as a very complex issue in our society today. They ponder the questions of intervention vs. non-intervention in specific case studies about paternalism, dwarfism, privacy, and flawed gene heredity relating to retardation. In two of the cases, aborting the unborn fetus is at issue if the genetic test results do not favor the parents wishes for the child. This raises health, ethical, and legal arguments which are traditionally at cross-purposes. The issues even hearken back to Roe v. Wade whereby the reason to abort is indisputable. On the other hand, terminating an otherwise healthy fetus can be viewed as selective childbirth, not unlike “the abortion of female fetuses in China”. Having knowledge of what is to come, even in the future of the child’s life is making the difference. More parents are being told genetically determined information about their unborn and existing children, which prior to the advances in the last five years they had no access to. The case relating to paternity is purely a moral one. It focuses on the question of whether incidental information which is generated by genetic testing, outside of what has been requested, should be divulged or not. This also raises the issue about the nature of the genetic information, and whether it should influence...
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...Whitney Summers Ms. Wert English 101 H December 3, 2012 Genetic Engineering Just imagine the scene: and newlywed wife and husband are sitting down with a catalog, browsing joyously, pointing and awing at all the different options, fantasizing about all the possibilities that could become of their future. Is this a catalog for new furniture? No. This catalog for all features, phenotype and genotype, for the child they are planning to have. It is basically a database for parents to pick and choose all aspects of their children, from the sex of the child, to looks, and even to personality traits. Parents since the beginning of time have “planned” to have children, but never have they been able to legitimately “plan” out their child. This scene does not seem typical for our time and age, but truthfully it is what is becoming of our world. Through substantial research and experimentation that is taking place, scientists, specifically biologists, are becoming keener to the field of engineering; Genetic engineering that is. When one thinks of “genetic engineering,” the first thought is probably a perfect child, or paradoxically some inconceivable creature, forged under the microscope in a scientific laboratory. Though both of these are genetic engineering, many people do not consider other things, such as genetic engineering of agriculture and medicine, both of which are extremely useful. Through the genetic altering of plants and crops, scientists have been able to manipulate...
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...Based on the information in the annotated bibliography, the paper will be on human gene editing. It will be focusing on the ethical and legal aspects of human gene editing. She is going to argue that people shouldn’t be able to participate in gene editing. 2. In the sources, there are several summaries about the CRISPR technique used in human gene editing, but it is flawed and not a technique that is completely reliable yet in modern medicine. She addresses that she will be addressing legal and ethical aspects of the gene editing controversies. She also included several points about using credible scientist that focus on this section in biology, and using their knowledge and facts to justify why individuals should not practice human gene editing...
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