Pandoras Box

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According to Greek mythology, the griefs of life came into existence as a result of the introduction of a woman into a purely man inhabited world. The gods were said to have only created men, until Zeus became angry with mankind and devised the most horrible punishment he could conceive, creating Woman. Zeus instructed the smith of the gods, Hephaestus, to create her from the materials of earth and make her irresistibly beautiful. Each of the Greek gods gave her a gift of skill, and aptly named her Pandora, meaning "all gifted." The messenger god, Hermes, with his winged sandals, took Zeus' ghastly creation down to earth, and with her a box given to her by the gods with instructions that it never be opened. One of the gifts that the gods had bestowed upon Pandora was a lively curiosity. After restraining her eagerness to view the contents of the box, Pandora finally lifted the lid and mistakenly released all nature of evil into the world: sickness, hatred, jealously, suffering, and greed. Just as each of the gods had endowed Pandora with a wonderful gift, so had they each stored in the box the greatest evil they could create. Pandora remorsefully tried to replace the lid on the box, but this awful creation had already instilled its evils forever into the life of man. Only one good thing resulted from Zeus' creation: the spirit of hope, which lay at the bottom of the box. (Geocities, "Pandoras Box") It is this hope for the possibility of extraordinary things in the future that motivates mans' curiosity and persistence in all walks of life. Such innate curiosity and hope is instilled in many by the prospect of eradicating all human suffering from debilitating genetic diseases. Through the discovery of the structure of DN... ... middle of paper ... ...atastrophe- before being given the clearance to proceed" (Watson, pg.400 DNA). The potential for good far outweighs the risks of repeating history, the abuse of technology, or the possibility of offending someone's beliefs. Modern genetics has learned from the mistakes of the past and recognized the lessons learned from the eugenics. Unlike the motives and reasoning behind eugenics, DNA sequence is a definite science that is not open to bias, prejudice, or interpretation. Although prospective parents should be given the choice of whether they want to genetically modify their children, this should only be attempted after bioethical guidelines have been laid, and the science unpinning it has been perfected. Once this science is perfected and fears of new evils have been subdued, then finally the hope that lay at the bottom of Pandora's Box can be made a reality.

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