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Genetic Modification Benefits

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What should be the limits of genetic engineering, and who should decide?

Why would anyone want to get sick? Why would anyone want to be born with a low IQ? Why would anyone want to be born with undesirable looks? Genetic modification on the surface seems to be an easy fix to those problems. Everyone can design their own babies and know exactly what they will be good at and what they will look like in 20 years. This is the world of the future. But not the future I want to live in. Although a future with genetic modification might look nice. A future with genetic modification is quite scary due to our lack of knowledge of the long-term effects of genetic modification on humans. Additionally, as per the course of history, genetic modification …show more content…
In Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, she portrayed a world where corporate power reigns supreme. Everything is available and everything is for sale. Massive corporations run the whole country and their whole interest is profit. Corporations are so interested in profit that moral and ethical considerations are thrown to side. This was Atwood’s vision of the future. It might seem far off now but with companies like Apple who are so large that they can fight the very government in court, this vision is not so distant. But the thing that is really scary, is the fact that these same companies may be in charge of genetic modification. Everything over time will be monetized, there is no way around it. If there is demand, supply will rise. Undoubtedly, with technology this advanced and in demand. It will be controlled by massive corporations and is that good? In Atwood’s Oryx and Crake companies would manufacture diseases in order to profit from their cures. “But don’t they keep discovering new diseases? Not discovering, said Crake. They’re creating them.” (P 210-211). What's to stop them from doing it in this scenario? Creating a rogue gene in the population so they are forced to pay for some expensive modification to come back to normal does not seem so far fetched. Our society is currently too consumerist and entertainment driven for gene modification to not be popular. And with the great powers of gene …show more content…
Undoubtedly when gene editing becomes mainstream and popular, most of the weaker genes will be removed. Gene’s that diversify and make the human population will be removed for superior alternatives. Why have dry skin when you can head to the lab and get moist skin with the easy removal of a gene. The problem with this is that gene diversity is what helps to keep the human population alive. Back in 1300’s when the world was hit by the black plague between 200 and 75 million people died. More would have died if there weren't some who were immune to the disease. Very recently, a study from the National Academy of Sciences suggested that “Descendants of plague-affected populations share certain changes in some immune genes.” Basically meaning those who survived the plague had stronger genes and passed them along to their children thus giving the next generation more resistance to the plague. This was all because of genetic diversity. The population survived because a small few were immune to it meaning that the plague cannot possibly kill everyone. Now the way this relates to the dangers of genetic engineering is that once everyone has the same genes, no one is safe. Imminently through genetic engineering, weak genes will be eliminated and replaced by stronger ones. This will be happening on a large scale to the whole population. But if everyone has the same genes, everyone is weak. If everyone has the

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