A Brave New World Genetic Analysis

            Before launching into the implications of these two novels, I believe a summary of the general human experience in each of the two societies is necessary. Brave New World illustrates a society in which science has been elevated to a god-like position. In this novel, human

Aldous Huxley’s novel, Brave New World, depicts a world in which babies are created and grown in factories, and sex is no longer needed to procreate. Set in the year of 2540, where science is at its height, people are genetically designed for a specific social rank in order for the government to control society. The government clones embryos in order to have enough people to meet the needs of the workforce. In the past few years of modern society, many people have begun to fear that the world presented in the novel will become a reality. Believing that through designer babies, or babies created through science, people will no longer have the freedom that exists today. Critics often debate whether or not the science of eugenics brought up in

Brave New World, acknowledges government control which results in the failure of a society. It is a world created where everything is under control, being observed, and synthetic. The society was manufactured in a test tube therefore, it was factory made. The people were born and developed in the test tubes, so their human nature became adapted so an individual cannot identify or approach it. Every little detail of a person's life is prearranged. These people's lives revolve around their community, their existence, and security; never their individual happiness. They are basically living for their society as a whole. This society was designed to be successful but it failed to give people their individuality. The individuals sacrificed

Brave New World depicts a world in which Resident Controller Mustapha Mond governs a society where every aspect of an individual's life, from decantation onward, is determined by the State. Predestination by God has been replaced by predestination by the government. Through the Bokanovsky Process, future-citizens are made with a virtually inexistent level of individuality. Once decanted and technologically altered to comply with their pre-determined caste, children are brought up and conditioned by state officials, not by a traditional family. Value has been stripped away from people as individual beings; humans have become standardized and interchangeable. Brave New World portrays a society in which innate originality has been sacrificed

Genetic Engineering has produced an array of breakthroughs in the progression of modern medicine. Though it is faced with both ethical and potential environmental grievances, the efficacious results of Genetic Engineering counterpoise the criticisms from environmentalists. Researchers in genetics have provided simple solutions to problems that society has consistently endured. Genetic Engineering offers solutions to failing crops and heightened yields in production as well as numerous applications in medicine. It is approached by the concerns of the environmental impact of such actions, as well as the civil concern on ethics.

Human genetic engineering can save people's lives now and could save more in the future. According to a New Scientist article (Le Page, 2015), Layla was three months when she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a kind of cancer in the bone marrow. She underwent other treatments like chemotherapy, but those failed so she underwent gene therapy by using the TALEN protein to edit her genes to produce a cancer fighting T cell called UCRAT19; She survived and thrived (Le Page 2015). Saving someone’s life through human genetic engineering doesn’t even have to be as complicated as altering genes. According to TIME Health (Park, 2014), Mya Burkhart was six months old when her parents started to look for a cure to her rare mutation in the gene for citrate. This mutation prevented certain parts of her from getting enough energy, causing breathing and development problems, and after having no luck with any other diagnosis, a genetic scan figured out what the issue was and gave her citrate supplements (Alice Park, 2014). Both Layla’s and Mya’s lives were saved because of human genetic engineering. Layla was cured of cancer because of human genetic engineering, which is one toughest diseases for humans to cure right now, while Layla’s cancer was cured, but Mya’s condition was only treated so maybe if human genetic engineering could continue a cure could be developed to improve her life.

Humans live with “perfect health” and overall “happiness” (Huxley 234, 239) despite this, severe consequences to their so called perfection. The distribution of methods used for genetic engineering holds dangers when controlled by humans. One of the main characters in the novel, Lenina, works at the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre and after a stressful day “she...couldn’t remember” if she gave one of the embryos “its sleeping sickness injection” (Huxley 187). This mistake led to that human catching the sleeping sickness and dying because of the lack of medication for it. Humans make mistakes and that cannot be avoided so putting them in charge of gene altering would eventually lead deaths that would not occur otherwise. Humans seem to improve in the book, but what they actually divide the population by “giv[ing some] embryo[s] less oxygen” so it stays “below par” (Huxley 14). The Alpha cast stays unaffected genetically while the others not only receive oxygen deprivation but alcohol as well. This proves that genetic engineering does not need to be practiced to enhance the human species. A portion their population comes from the Bokanovsky Process which involves the cloning of embryos. Seeing human beings produced like an assembly line caused John, another character, to “violently retch” after seeing so many people who “all [look] exactly alike” (Huxley 20,

In Brave New World, many influences from its time can be seen. Henry Ford’s philosophy is one of the most predominant ideas implemented into the novel, and is seen being applied extensively in the first three chapters when you abruptly enter the World State. The assembly line concept is noticeable in the hatchery, where “social predestination becomes reality” (gupea). This is where humans from the World State are manufactured technically to be developed into specific castes. Depending on which caste the human is to be born into, the workers would create it in differing ways. Such differentiation can be seen when “the Alphas and Betas [go] back to the incubators, while the Gammas, the Deltas, and the Epsilons were brought out again [...] to undergo the Boskonovsky’s process” (Huxley, Ch. 1). In Ford’s case, he is

While the society may be perfect in the citizens’ minds, there are many problems apparent to us, the readers. By separating haves and have-nots, we see this as denying people their unalienable right to success and to personal thought. Brave New World, without the people’s permissions, brainwashes its citizens through soma and hypnopaedia. We see this as morally wrong. I believe that everyone has the right to failure and to sadness, but Brave New World limits personal success and personal emotion. An interesting topic brought up in the Socratic seminar was the genetic problems apparent in this society. Problems in this society may arise due to the identical characteristics of each individual. Because they are all identical, if there was a new virus introduced, the whole population could potentially be wiped out. In reality, they are not curing the diseases as they claim to. Also, because all the individuals are similar, there is no diversity present in the society, something our society thrives

A major comparison that can be made between Brave New World and the modern world is the similarity between how babies are born in the book and the assembly line. Huxley describes the “modern fertilization process” (Huxley 3) as if the eggs were moving down the assembly

Genetic engineering is a very controversial topic. People either agree with genetic modification, or they don’t. According to dictionary.com, genetic engineering is the development and application of scientific methods, procedures, and technologies that permit direct manipulation of genetic material in order to alter the hereditary traits of a cell, organism, or population. While researching this topic, I learned many interesting facts. I found out that genetic engineering first started in 1973, I did not know it had been around for so long. I learned that two men, Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen, were the first people to genetically modify an organism, which was bacteria. Yourgenome.org states that, “Genetic engineering can be applied to

The society in the book Brave New World, and society today have many similarities and differences. The society in Brave New World is obsessed with happiness. The Government (World State) uses soma and sex freely to keep people content. Our societies use on drugs is widely argued, but as we progress through the years the laws are becoming more lenient. States such as California and many others have passed laws legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.

Brave New World – Practice Essay In the novel, how have science and technology made the world better? Worse? Compare to modern society.

First able, brave new world is written by Aldous Huxley concentrates on the development of mankind in a future society. He shows a society which is supposed to be a perfect one. The structure of brave new world contains one motto that is community, identity, and stability which are the pillars of this society. Each member have complete control of the development of the society. This control does not begin with a birth of the general population, everybody gets his place in the general public before he or she is born. Huxley does not speak of the birth of human beings, he calls it transferring, because people are raised in bottles. They need many things to protect the society and keep motto alive

Each of the characters in Brave New World lacks an important human characteristic, individuality. I feel individuality is one of the most important things that defines us as humans, we were each created differently, and, like a snow flake, no two people are alike. In the future, due to the advent of genetic engineering, up to 17 thousand babies can be made from a