...Genetic engineering has nothing but negative effects on society as a whole. In both Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, and Gattaca, genetic engineering has become increasingly out of control until it has become the only thing that matters. People are being created rather than born, constructed by scientists in a laboratory rather than letting nature take its course. One’s personality, intelligence, and overall individuality becomes secondary to the DNA contained within one’s cells. In Brave New World, people are manufactured in bottles along an assembly line; everything about their life is determined by people in lab coats. In Gattaca, parents who wish to conceive a child simply take a trip to their “local geneticist” and order a baby, off...
Words: 688 - Pages: 3
...Genetic engineering is the “altering of genetic material”, typically deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA (Parker 4). This is a relatively new science that has only been studied “for the past 150 years” (Hodge xix). Today it can clearly be seen as a success in the agriculture business because of our year round access to a multitude of fruits, vegetables, and other crops. However, the use of genetic engineering on humans is a controversial issue which forces “politicians and the public [to] face tremendously important choices about how genetic engineering...should be used” (Hodge xx). In the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the practice of human genetic engineering is the basis of their society but it is still a controversial issue in parts of our...
Words: 726 - Pages: 3
...Upon entering the “Squat Grey Building” that is the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre; you will see the motto of the World State: Community, Identity, and Stability. These three words reflect the ultimate goal of the Utopia that is the World State. “Community” means that everyone within the Utopia must work together to maximize happiness for the society as a whole. “Identity” refers to the five classes of hereditary social groups that are created through genetic engineering. Finally, “Stability” refers to the ultimate goal of the Utopia. By creating similar people and censoring and controlling actions, the society looks to minimize conflict, risk, and overall change. The three goals of the World State are completely controlled through the use of science and technology in Brave New World, which thereby stripped its residents of all social aspects and personal freedoms. By creating the Brave New World Huxley shows the importance of technology and progress to society, which makes us stop and consider how our current progress and advancements in technology have affected our society as a whole. Before looking into how people in the World State are restricted from having any free will, it is important to define what it means to be human. In my opinion, all humans are born with free will. I would define free will as the equal and inalienable rights to be an individual who can make their own choices. The ability to act at one’s own discretion without constraint...
Words: 1322 - Pages: 6
...Holzhauer, world Lit, Period.3, November 16, 2015. $18,000 On Average, the amount parents spend on Genetically modifying their child. With ongoing advances in reproductive technology and genetic engineering, a human’s ability to make themselves what they please is increasingly within reach. For example, in a 1996 Nature editorial it was stated that, “the growing power of molecular genetics confronts us with future prospects of being able to change the nature of our species.”{1} This has raised serious ethical concerns. The power to change human nature says nothing at all about whether we have any right to change it or should change it. How might we use such unprecedented power? Aldous Huxley made disturbing predictions about human’s possible future. Both explored what might happen if technologies like genetic engineering and psychological conditioning were unwisely applied to mankind. Huxley’s View In Huxley’s Brave New World children...
Words: 453 - Pages: 2
...For centuries, film makers have toyed with the idea of “genetic selection.” However, being able to customize a supreme race of more attractive with more genetic immunities to diseases is very close to no longer being categorized as science fiction. GATTACA once took us into the world of valids and invalids. The audience watched shoveling down popcorn as the human race became divided and hostel between the normal human births and those who were more fit and privileged because of their DNA. Genetic engineering is already being carried out successfully on non-human animals. “The gene which makes jellyfish fluoresce has been inserted into mice embryos, resulting in glow-in-the-dark rodents,” says BBC NEWS. “Other mice have had their muscle-mass bettered, or been made to be more faithful to their partners, through the introduction of a gene into their standard genetic make-up. But these scientists predict the amazing breakthroughs in genetically engineering lab mice and farm critters will eventually be applied to the animals at the top of the food chain,” says Daniel Q. Haney, “scientists already recognize some of the combinations of genes that help people defend against some major illnesses. So, one objective of human germline engineering could be to help the genetically less fortunate share these built-in health advantages.” It is not long before experimentation on humans is going to be carried out. As technology and science get closer to being able to engineer supreme race...
Words: 516 - Pages: 3
...Human Genetic Engineering Imagine being able to design your own baby before it is even born, or prevent your unborn child from a dreadful disease, or make your baby a genius or an athlete. Scientists could be opening Pandora’s Box with the potential development of human genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is the process by which genes are added or transferred to alter the genetic code of an organism (“What is Genetic Modification”). Since the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2006, genetic engineering has developed rapidly and it seems as though a new discovery or breakthrough is announced every day. Many of the discoveries as well as future prospects have presented numerous challenges and concerns, and continue to be an ethical debate. Human genetic engineering will lead to unfavorable consequences that defy nature, lead to less diversity, and threaten our safety. Scientists are messing with nature in the process of human genetic engineering. There is a delicate balance in nature that should not be tampered with because of the unforeseen effects it could cause. With advancements in genetic engineering and new technologies, scientists are racing to uncover some profound new discovery by experimenting with our genes in a Petri dish. Manipulations to our genes are unnatural and unpredictable. It was just announced this year that the first human ear was grown from animal cells on the back of a rat (Briggs). While this major breakthrough has enormous potential for...
Words: 1657 - Pages: 7
...Genetic engineering is a very new and undiscovered topic. Bioengineers have been experimenting with cells in petri dishes, trying to clone cells and mutate them. Scientists have even figured out how to change human DNA before it's even born. Doing so allows them to change physical features, abilities, and prevent certain diseases such as alzheimer's. I imagine that genetic engineering is very helpful and could potentially further our society. However, it is illegal to change or mutate DNA in a child in the US. Specifically modifying or editing gene cells or embryos so that a child has certain features are called “designer babies.” Designer babies could be of great help to society. For example, if the next generation is biologically smarter,...
Words: 1720 - Pages: 7
...Genetics Scott Cliff Post University Genetic engineering (GE) has been presented to the public as a way to improve the quality of our lives, enhance agriculture and advance our ability to fight genetic illnesses. The possibilities seem endless, but raise worries as well as optimism (Fricker, 2002). The Human Genome Project, conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Department of Health and Human Services, undertook the task of mapping all human genes their chromosomes (Morse, 1998). This project contributed greatly to the potential for GE in humans, but in fact GE has already been used in agriculture. However, some biologists point out that we call “genetic engineering” has been accomplished for centuries via cross-breeding, and that GE is just a new way of accomplishing something already done in the past (Fricker, 2002). The risk with GE is that genes can be combined in ways never before possible, and with possibly unpredictable results. For a decade, we have had the capability to insert alien genes into target cells, thus changing the organism. This can be done with cells taken from a patient. After altering, they can be returned to the patient to achieve some medical goal (Anderson, 1990). The concern with GE is that it can have both anticipated and unanticipated effects (Fricker, 2002). Because of this, we should proceed cautiously and carefully, with many safeguards in place. Genetic engineering is largely uncharted territory and only hubris would allow...
Words: 1262 - Pages: 6
...The Oxford Dictionary defines the term designer baby as ‘a baby whose genetic make-up has been selected in order to eradicate a particular defect, or to ensure a particular gene is present’. The genetic engineering of an embryo is alright in some particular cases, but when a couple wants to add certain genes to ensure they have, in their words, the perfect child, where should we draw the line? Many people think that it is the right thing to do to give your child the opportunity to not have a crippling disease or some other defect, but some think that there are ethical issues while engineering the gene line in a way that would affect the next generation without their consent (Fecht). Parents should not be allowed to change the genes of their...
Words: 1028 - Pages: 5
...Introduction Genetic research has advanced in a dramatic fashion in the last decade or so, to the point where it has now become possible to attempt therapeutic genetic modification, in a few cases of human genes, where a defects exists which manifests itself in certain serious diseases. This possibility, known as gene therapy, is only in its infancy. At present, no one knows how effective it will prove to be, even in the few conditions on which it is being tried - whether it will only be of relatively limited application, or whether it will open up many wider possibilities. It suffers both over-optimistic claims from some quarters and exaggerated dangers from others, over which the church needs to be discerning. It is, of course, not possible to assert exactly where the possibilities opened up by today's technology will lead in terms of future developments, but various ethical and moral issues are implicit in the technology which it is important to draw to the Church's attention, so that it is forearmed in an area where developments have been taking place at a bewildering pace. An editorial in the "New Scientist" in April 1994 drew attention to the need to weigh up what may still be future issues today, before the technological "horse" bolts from the stable and it is too late to lock the door. Potential Ethical Issues Perhaps the most basic underlying questions centre on a Christian understanding of the human being. • What does this tell us vis a vis our genetic and physical...
Words: 6555 - Pages: 27
...scientific ones. The concept behind the term is that, as humans we have the ability to augment not only ourselves, but also the world around us. As Joshua Raulerson describes it ‘a movement organised around the pursuit of technological interventions that will directly facilitate the transformation of humans into posthumans’ (2013: 31). Equally, it is also to expand our knowledge, to enhance our lives for comfort, ease and functionality....
Words: 1622 - Pages: 7
...a seemingly perfect world is often anything but. Every utopia has its flaws and cracks, and few novels make this point more clearly than Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. The futuristic setting of the story exposes the reader to a world dominated by technology and complacency. People are no longer born; they are made in laboratories all around the world, and have their destinies chosen for them before they even leave their test tube. Sexuality is treated in a very flippant manner, and self-gratification is the primary driving force for the actions of nearly every single person. History is no longer relevant, and people never question what they are told. The key question regarding the nature of this kind of world is a question to which the answer is yet unknown. The question is something any reader of this novel should ask himself or herself, and that is simply this: Is it worth it? There is no crime rate, and peoples’ desires are rarely left unfulfilled, but is it worth the giving up of free will and of choice? There is no clear answer to this question, and there will likely never be one. Although this question has no obvious answer, the logic behind this world is fairly easy to understand. Perhaps Aldous Huxley himself summarizes it best in Brave New World Revisited when he states, “Permanent crisis justifies permanent control of everybody and everything by the agencies of the central government. And permanent crisis is what we have to expect in a world in which over-population...
Words: 1258 - Pages: 6
...Brave New World: Relevant or too Relevant? In the 1930s and 1940s, Aldous Huxley and George Orwell presented notions of a lurid future society in their novels. Huxley’s Brave New World is a dystopian novel that tells a tale of humans born in laboratories who are free to use drugs and have sex at their leisure, which mirrors a few aspects of today’s world. Today, sexual promiscuity and prurience has increased. Substance abuse has also proliferated. Moreover, many rapid scientific/technological developments have been made. Despite Orwell’s 1984 prophesying that telescreens and totalitarianism will be copious, our world is steadily racing toward a society that echoes Huxley’s Brave New World. The eerie resemblance is more than just a coincidence. Whether the circumstance applies to a teenager or an adult, sexual promiscuity has become increasingly common. By human nature, men and women will be aroused by someone whose attributes are in his/her favor (such as a large bosom or wide hips of women for men and muscularity or great hair of men for women), even if they are married and devoutly committed to his/her partner. Monogamous relationships are also threatened by divorce and extramarital affairs. Another reason marriages break apart is due to pornography— men and women may feel unsatisfied in their relationship and/or seek sexual gratification from a third party. A study by the Family Research Council and the Marriage and Religion Institute claims that 56% of divorces...
Words: 1262 - Pages: 6
...Our Future with Science and Technology In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Huxley describes a chilling vision of a totalitarian society ruled by both manipulation and conditioning of its' citizens. It ways eighty one years ago that Huxley made this fictional world into a piece of literature that still resonates with his readers today. Social engineering and technology of modern society were either at its' infancy or not even created yet when Huxley wrote his book. The maturity of these ideologies and technologies that makes Brave New World touch close to home. Is it possible to bring a world of chaos to order or is it just a proclivity of the human condition? In Utopia by Sir Thomas More, the city Amaurot is the city of Hythloday's research of Utopian society. His mention of the lack of privacy among its' citizens can be very relevant to today. While we can still lock our doors and windows, close our curtains and blinds, the amount of privacy one has has been increasingly diminishing. With the advent of federal approbation of various ways of the government to invade on a person's right to privacy is a slow progression to the possibility of losing our privacy completely. Others argue that discretion of these actions should not be a worry of the common citizen. They argue that if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide. It is a way of justification of a deplorable act on our everyday privacy. And the debate will only continue to escalate as the rapid evolution...
Words: 1072 - Pages: 5
...Brave New World In Contrast to Aging in the Future The book “Brave New World” brought up many points about the future, and aging. The book is in the Utopia setting where everyone is the same, and robot-like, they take soma to stay happy and emotionally incapable. People do not age, they do not have emotions or feelings either, they are all the same. Comparing to the real world, we do age, we do have emotions, and we do care about others. In Brave New World everyone lives forever because of the medications they take. The question for today is, how long are we going to live in the future? It all depends on medical advances, and technological advances. Some people believe we are going to live longer as the years go on. Some believe that medicines or life styles may decrease our life expectancy. I believe that in the very far future we may end up like Brave New World, taking medications or other modifications to help our bodies live longer. I believe that we will advance medically in the near future, but we will not be advancing rapidly enough to be able to find a medication that everyone in society is going to take. It is far-fetched...
Words: 1655 - Pages: 7
