Genetic Engineering: Cause for Alarm Essay

public funding. Well-financed biotech firms are free t“Genetic engineering is tampering on a monumental scale, and nature will surely exact a heavy toll for this trespass”- Eva Novotny.
Eva described the act of gene modification as a great crime in the natural world, and implied that mother nature will definitely avenge mans trespassing on her turf. Its with Eva that I make my case.
Genetic engineering is the direct manipulation of an organism’s genome using biotechnology. It is a case where by genes are extract, placed, copied or modify to enhance the well being of an organism. This practice has occurred in our past, and is growing into our future.
A lower less threatening form of Genetic engineering has been used through time from about 1300-1600, a method knows as selective breeding. Selective breeding started with grains, getting better products of grain and of coarse getting more production. This process had the same goal as modern genetics, to bring about “better” more useful offspring. Like all things, genetic Engineering has changed, and is being used today in ways our great grandfathers father could not imagine. Plants and seeds are being modified to produce better yields. Animals are given traits to help then survive better in their environment, insects are being tested to be used as weapons, heart farms are being cultivated and the list goes on.

All these innovations and possibilities, one must stop and ask. At what cost? What are the limits? How will this affect us long term? What will happen if we continue to climb? That’s the problem right there, these questions are not asked or considered enough. Yes today it helps get rid of suffering illness, gives a quick result and may even lead to a longer human life span but what happens tomorrow.

A world where we continuously enhance our genes appears dark and bleak. All the advantages of modification are not worth the consequences that come with it.
In this genetic modified world, one most consider what issues of inequality will arise. Will those with natural passed genes be looked down on? How will the 12-year-old boy be treated by his peers due to his natural genetic code? The orphans in foster care, will their chances of being adopted be dependent on their genetic code? One can only imagine that foster homes will become a refugee camp for “unfit” children.

One would think that the genetic make up of humans are complex enough. If we make them better what does this mean? We would allow only “fit” children to be born and the “unfit” to be aborted. The ideas of “designer babies” come to mind. Will those with the ability to give birth to “better children” be able to sell them to those who cant?
All of this will inevitably bring about the idea of, who makes the call, and of course the ethics of the process will be questioned by the religious societies as they are today. Are parents educated enough to be able to decide what’s best for their unborn child, then again is the born child now comfortable with the characteristics it was given? Will this process be government controlled. We already see practically situation where government controls birth. I know for sure in China a country with a high population allows a man to father only one child. Government may have to carry the burden of a growing genetically modified environment. Another way in which government will have to deal with this environment can been seen when we talk of genetic crime. Possible situations were people

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