Genetic Engineering

Each person in the world has something about them that makes them different. They all have flaws and assets that make them who they are. Well, what if someone had the power to change you? Would you let them? Would you want them to? Genetic engineering is a scientific advancement in our society that is slowly becoming more of an issue in today’s society. Although genetic engineering is an advancement in the medical and scientific field, it is morally and ethically wrong and puts too much power in the people’s hands.

Many people may feel that by giving parents the opportunity to be able to genetically engineer their children, they would be giving parents a chance to save their children from disease and other medical ailments. Although this may take care of the immediate disease and would prevent suffering and death of diseases that are pending on today’s world, the long term effects would end in disaster and chaos throughout society. Yes, people would not obtain cancer, be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or other heart wrenching ailments causing them to die at an early age, but one most consider the population of the earth. If people have a longer longevity, then the world’s population will start to increase. This increase will create a problem with not only an over crowded society, but the economy. Retirement and pension will become an issue as people begin to live longer and employment will become scarcer and more of a problem than it already is today.

This advancement in science could be taken advantage of and eventually could end up like Brave New World. These cures and solutions to medical ailments could be taken to a level where it gets too carried away with individual people that the government needs to step in. In this scenario, it becomes something that eventually everyone will be forced to do. Yes, they could say that people are being given a “choice.” However, the people who do not use genetic engineering automatically will become the impoverished. This would cause diversity between people that would make this medical advancement more of a burden and a split between the classes than an asset to humans.

Genetically engineering people is morally and ethically against what life stands for. As soon as parents begin to choose what their children are going to be like, they start playing with their futures. Of course all parents are going to choose a life that is perfect for them and a life that, perhaps, they may have wanted for themselves. However, the child that they are choosing this for, is a person too and they should get to live life with the same choices that their parents had. By putting lives in people’s hands they are taking away choices. Through past instances, it is a known fact that people get extremely power hungry. It is this power that may seem like it is helping people individually; however, it will eventually become chaotic to the population as a whole.