Genetic Engineering Should Be Prohibited Essay, Research Paper
Genetic engineering should not be done on humans. It is immoral and harmful in our society. This form of technology allows genetic engineers and research doctors to modify a human being s physical and mental capabilities. Genetic engineers could alter an individual s characteristic and other human features. Genetic engineering has given these scientists the power to alter the very basis of life on earth.
Genetic engineering on humans is immoral and very heinous. It breaks the barrier of ethics between natural existence and theological principles. In Robin Cook s medical thriller Mutation, a bright doctor named Dr. Victor Frank attempted to create the son of his dreams and turned out possessing a living nightmare.
Dr. Frank s wife couldn t bear a child so he decided to perform a fertilization of he and his wife s sex cells to be implanted and grown into a substitute mother. Dr. Frank wanted more besides having a child. He wanted to have a supernatural intelligent child who will continue his research on biotechnology. Before the fertilized egg(zygote) was implanted into the surrogate mother, he manipulated one of the zygote s genes by injecting a special kind of protein which would stimulate the nerves in the brain of the child and make the brain cells grow. This would make the child extraordinarily bright(Cook, Mutation, 77).
The procedure done by Dr. Frank to the zygote risked the innocent child s life as an experimental subject. This implies that human beings are just posses sions of technology when it comes to human genetic engineering.
Genetic engineering is harmful and disadvantageous not only to the human outgrowths of this technological procedure but also to the people who would live with them. Dr. Frank s experiment with his son, VJ, was a success. As a result, VJ s intelligence was very extraordinary which isolated him from the children of his age(Cook, Mutation, 230). Human products of genetic engineering were often different, that s why they re ignored, solitary, and cannot live a normal life. Dr. Frank was very glad when he discovered that VJ, at an early age created his own secret lab and surpassed even doctor s experiments on biotechnology. Dr. Frank was so overwhelmed by his son s mental ability and he didn t realize the deficiency on VJ s personality. It turned out that VJ has no emotions at all and he murdered the people who tried to prevent and oppose his scientific and dangerous ideas(Cook, Mutation, 302). This showed how immoral, harmful or even fatal, results of genetic engineering could turn out to be. Dr. Frank paid his own price of wanting the best for his son. We certainly couldn t blame VJ for all his actions for he, is only a victim of genetic technology.
A recent Time article suggests that genetic screening and manipulation often result to abortion( How Far Should We Go? ). Most genetic engineers don t pay attention to the results of their actions. When genetic scientists study customizing an unborn baby s genetic features and characteristics, they need a sample of the embryo s cell or tissues as experimental specimens. They don t realize that maybe one of those cells or tissues that they took from the
embryo could be the child s lungs, brain, or heart. They re killing a human being for every unsuccessful experiment that they perform. These genetic experts are executing the souls of these poor babies by taking their right to live.
Genetic engineering s immorality and harmfulness was elaborated in Robin Cook s suspense medical book Mortal Fear. A bright scientist, Dr. Alvin Hayes, attempted to discover a procedure that would slow down or stop the aging process by manipulating the gene that stimulates our growth hormones(Cook, Mortal Fear, 328). As we all know, the aging process is a natural process which serves as a fundamental basis of life. Attempting to manipulate the
aging process shows one s discontentment in the value of life. We should be very thankful and blessed to this God-given gift instead of despising it on its flaws. Life is not endless thing and we should enjoy every moment of it.
Genetic engineering manifests harmfulness and fatality to the human race. Dr. Alvin Hayes attempted discovery on stopping or slowing down a person s aging process turned into an ironic discovery. Instead of causing one s body to age slowly, the product of his discovery turned old patients and babies to cause rapid aging and death(Cook, Mortal Fear, 342). The flaw
on this experiment is very harmful and fatal. What if his product was illegally distributed worldwide and consumed by people believing they wouldn t grow old anymore? Imagine how this single mistake in an experiment could cease humanity s existence. Even if Dr. Hayes succeeded in discovering how to prevent people from getting old, his discovery was still very sinful and inhuman because he was playing with life itself.
An article by Dr. Patrick Dixon of the Press Association reports that in the next 5 to 10 years, headless human bodies will be grown in order to provide organs and tissues for transplant surgeries. The creation of headless human beings to be used to provide human organs is so alarming to the human race. How can we grasp seeing a headless individual being alive? Is our
world starting to be a freak show of some sort of weird people? Dr. Dixon emphasized the fact the we will witness creations of human beings which are growing and living, yet technically dead because they have no brains(Dixon). Is this the kind of world we want to live in? Our gene technologists have the ability to do whatever they like with life and design all kinds of bizarre
creatures. They will only stop this immoral and shameful actions if they were the ones being put on the shoes of those poor living individuals innocently being victimized by genetic technology.
A Washington Post article by E.J. Dione Jr. entitled Hold Off on Cloning suggests that cloning of human beings should be held off before it could be started. The first history of cloning is through a sheep named Dolly in Scotland. It was not an easy success. All of the earlier cloning efforts to produce the same exact sheep as Dolly failed, meaning that some sheep
replicas were genetically defective and had to be thrown out (Dione Jr.). Obviously, the cloning of the first human being would not be an easy accomplishment and could be much more difficult than Dolly s. The earlier failures are going to be human models that are genetically defective. These miserable, innocent, individuals could have four arms, just one eye, have
insufficient brain capability and have to be thrown out. Because of this process, abortion and murder will be a regular activity for these genetic experts.
Genetic engineering is certainly presenting serious problems to the moral and social issues in our society. If it occurred for whatever reason that our humanity holds science above morality, just imagine how pitiful our society would be. These genetic researchers and scientists symbolically represent murder and immorality in the real world and in the science world. Their work is the subject of the evil one which is sacrificing another somebody s own precious life for their greedy intentions and to benefit themselves. Taking over somebody else s existence is a heinous crime of stealing God s position. Even though this branch of knowledge could be a
major breakthrough in science and biotechnology, we still have every rights to oppose and stop science s advancement. It is our obligation to save our world from mischief and depravity.