The Pros And Cons Of Genetic Engineering

Imagine if we could make disease a thing of the past and extend the average human lifespan past 100 years. With genetic engineering, someday this future could become reality. Genetic engineering can cure genetic diseases, and extend and empower human life. However, many people have overestimated and reacted to ethical and safety concerns associated with this new technology.

You are probably familiar with GMO’s (genetically modified organism) and scientifically modified food that has had its DNA changes. There has been debate on GMO’s has been going on for a few decades, whether GMO are safe and even ethical. However, there is another debate that far surpasses GMOs and has a potential to radically shake society: the issue of genetically modifying humans. Changing our DNA could limit health issue or create a new Frankenstein’s monster among humans. Frankenstein had the wrong intent when he set out to create his monster. He only cared about himself and advancing his future. If Genetic engineering is sought after to just create something new there will be another monster. However, genetic can be safe and ethical if its intent and use is for medical purposes. We need to help the sick in society and one way to do that is with genetic engineering. With this purpose genetic engineering is not overstepping our authority like Frankenstein did.

Can genetic engineering cure diabetes and other disease? One article is about how genetic engineering can be good for the world and help with the problems that society has. The other is about how genetic engineering is bad and society should not have it at all, and how it is not necessary and can cause difficult lifestyles. In "The Eyes of Nye- Cloning" a video clip where Bill Nye and other intellectuals talk about why genetic engineering can be good for society as well as cure disease, other doctors have been so concentrated on. The other article provided is an excerpt from the book Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and it talks about how the man has created this monster and now he regrets it, he wishes that it had not happened and that it is unnatural. Genetic engineering can be a useful because it can be a cure for disease that have yet to be found. It can also be bad because it is unnatural and against most people’s morals. Another good thing is that the U.S. does not have laws against cloning and these things can be done.

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.

Although the treatment is costly and only available in clinical trials, gene therapy has treated some of the most known diseases, like Parkinson’s disease. People who are for gene therapy believe that it will change our world by getting rid of sickness. They think of a world without cancer and Parkinson’s disease. However, the people against gene therapy see a world with technology overtaking civilization. In their eyes, they think that gene therapy is wrong because of the side effects and the concept behind it. In addition, when thinking about gene therapy, the opposers conjecture that changing the genetic makeup of someone affected with genetic illness is wrong. I, on the other hand, believe that changing the genetic makeup of someone that is ill and suffering is exceptional because it is to their advantage. All in all, gene therapy is a heavily debated topic, but I believe that gene therapy can change our world in a positive

There are many incurable diseases in the world that affect an organism’s way of living. Cystic Fibrosis, a disease with no known cure, affects 1 out of 3600 Canadian child’s digestive system and lungs, while a person with sickle cell anemia is only expected to live forty to sixty years. Both of these diseases are similar in the way that they are inherited genetically; they are passed on from parents to their children. Scientists are producing a way to help these people called Genetic Engineering. This is a way of modifying an organism’s genome to produce a more desirable trait by manually adding new DNA.

Imagine the possibility of eliminating serious genetic diseases from the world. Imagine the idea of treating, preventing or even curing diseases that are yet to be cured. Imagine the feeling of being given improved health and a prolonged lifespan. This can all be accomplished with the aide of genetic engineering. Human genetic engineering refers to the process of directly manipulating human DNA to produce wanted results. DNA is a simple but very complex chemical that has the power to change the world and has begun to do so already. Many opponents to gene therapy fail to realize that genetic engineering has great potential to become very important in the biomedical industry. Though controversy exists regarding the ethics of human genetic engineering, it can produce numerous benefits, which outweigh its disadvantages and side effects; therefore, scientists should be able to manipulate the human genome for the purpose of helping people with serious medical conditions.

It is incredible to see how far genetic engineering has come. Humans, plants, and any living organism can now be manipulated. Scientists have found ways to change humans before they are even born. They can remove, add, or alter genes in the human genome. Making things possible that humans (even thirty years ago) would have never imagined. Richard Hayes claims in SuperSize Your Child? that genetic engineering needs to have limitations. That genetic engineering should be used for medical purposes, but not for “genetic modification that could open the door to high-tech eugenic engineering” (188). There is no doubt that genetic engineering can amount to great things, but without limits it could lead the human race into a future that no one

Genetic engineering has been the subject of controversy since it first started. There is a lot of fear and concern surrounding the possibilities it presents. It is difficult to make ethical decisions about genetic engineering because if offers opportunities to solve many genetic problems such as hereditary diseases. The consequences are positive and negative, but there is no way to determine which will have a greater impact. Genetic engineering could lead to new treatments for hereditary diseases, but it could also have long-term adverse effects. Although there are benefits to genetic engineering, the negative side cannot be overlooked.

Genetic engineering is the figurehead of the ethical concerns of scientists in the 21st century. Nothing is more engrossed with criticism and dislike than the idea of altering the baseline for living organisms. Many people are skeptical of genetic engineering due to the versatility it exhibits. A scientist could use a genetic editing tool, such as CRISPR, to remove the genes for a hereditary disease in an embryo, but they could also utilize it to alter the physical characteristics of a human baby. This thought provoked the flood gates of ethics to unleash a multitude of unanswered questions and concerns about the usage and further development of genetic engineering. The field of genetic engineering is

It seems the future of this is now. “The science making human genetic engineering possible already exists and is being carried out, albeit in its nascent form, in labs and clinics around the world”(Metzl,2015). The early stages of doing this have started. For now it is just screening early stage embryos during vitro fertilization to find certain diseases that this baby may get (Metzl 2015). This is the first step in changing our genetics. This is a tricky one because it is helping someone, but what we don’t know is what damage that help maybe doing to them in other areas even though they can get rid of that particular disease. 80 percent of the medical school students were against genetic engineering that gives children enhanced athletic,

There is no denying the argument that it would be incredibly useful to have the ability to control and manipulate embryos in order to prevent diseases. However although there would be possible benefits, it is believed by many, including myself, that this huge medical step would cause more harm than good. On top of this, the concept of screening to prevent genetic disorders also suggests that a person with a disorder is somehow inferior, less desirable or not equal. Coming from a family that has lost many to the heartbreaking disease of cancer, I would love to see humans advance to a point where things like this were no longer a part of life. However, in my opinion, genetic engineering is not the solution to this nor is it the way of the future. In the article “ Engineering the perfect baby,” Antonio Regaldo quotes Edward Lanphier who says, “There really isn’t a medical reason.

This development has made the speculation of genetic engineering a reality, raising the question of whether or not it should be allowed. This is also just the beginning of what will be possible with genetic engineering of a human. Eventually, whole diseases could be eradicated, diseases such as alzheimer's or down syndrome. But as the technology would advance, it would make genetic engineering cheaper, and more available to the public, which raises the issue of people using the technology to create a

Many scientists will say that genetic modification will advance medical technology. They claim that modifying genes will help understand more about the human DNA and its purpose in medicine, and reproductive technology. While modifying

Genetic engineering is the gateway into an advanced realm of medicine. The first leap in this progression has already been established: pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, PGD. Genetic diseases can be halted by utilizing this process, particularly those resulting from single gene defects. This includes cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, and Huntington’s disease. Moreover, it has recently been expanded to prevent the development of breast and ovarian cancers by ensuring offspring do not possess the genetic mutation BRCA-1, which increases said cancers risk by eighty and sixty percent respectively.