The Ethics of Genetic Engineering

The Ethics of Genetic Engineering

An elderly man develops macular degeneration, a disease that destroys vision. To bolster his failing eyesight, he receives a transplant of healthy retinal tissue--cloned from his own cells and cultivated in a lab dish. A baby girl is born free of the gene that causes Tay-Sachs disease, although both her parents are carriers. The reason is a new knowledge of cells and DNA, and genetic engineering. With this new knowledge comes questions about ethics. We will explore genetic engineering though the past, through Hitler. The present with cloning, and what could happen in the future as what happened in Michael Crichton’s novel Jurassic Park.

First lets look at the past. During the 1930s a man by the name of Hitler, came to power in Germany. By 1940, he was trying to create a superhuman race. He started the most well known genocide in the world, the Holocaust. Hitler wanted all of the Jews, homosexuals, and anybody that he didn’t like, exterminated. This was one of the first attempts to create a superhuman race. Hitler was stopped in 1945, and the Holocaust stopped. Thanks to Hitler, an estimated 6 million people were killed.

Today a new way to create a superhuman race has come up, cloning. Cloning is making an exact copy of yourself. Thanks to cloning, many doors have opened. Scientist have already coned a sheep, so some say, were do we go now. Scientist want to clone humans, but laws have stopped that. The United States, along with 19 European countries have banned human cloning. However, that doesn’t stop people from going underground and cloning humans. We must put a stop to human cloning. Others have had the idea just to clone human organs. That way if someone needs a transplant you wouldn’t have to wait on a list. The organ would also be a perfect donor. Nevertheless, that would have to be closely watched. If it goes too far bad can come out it.

In the future, we might be able to clone extinct animals. This possibility is explored in Michael Crichton’s novel, Jurassic Park. In his book they bring back a few dinosaurs and put them on an island. They put up fences and keep the dinosaurs in a certain area of the park. Eventually the dinosaurs take control of the island. To clone something that we have no knowledge about their way of life is not right.