Ever since I was a young child my parents have told me they want nothing but the best for me. This is a goal set by many parents for their children. Through technology and advances in science today, our society is faced with a difficult question; is it the right of the parents to genetically design their children, in order to create best possible opportunities for that child? No, by allowing genetic engineering to take place, it opens up doors for people to play God, eliminate the family system, as well as the creating a master race. Science goes too far, when people are created by human beings and not by God.
Adolf Hitler was out to create the master race. The master race was a group of people who were worthy to live and prosper throughout the world. This race was to have blond hair and blue eyes. All of the individuals who did not have those characteristics were executed. In order to achieve this goal, Hitler did many experiments on identical twins. He was fascinated by them. They were, he believed, the link to how he could start his master race. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi’s are responsible for killing approximately 11 million people. If only genetic engineering was around in Hitler’s time, could you imagine the devastation? History is taught in school, to learn from the past. Hitler and the Nazi’s are not the only example that we can learn from, Aldous Huxley’s satire Brave New World is another. In this community based society, there are no families, mother and father are curse words, and people are created, not born. Yet, in this world almost everyone is perfectly happy and healthy.
Today we have the ability to make people have blond hair and blue eyes, as well as have the ability for create people. Creating people does have some positives; scientists can eliminate diseases and possibilities of cancer from unborn embryos. This is a huge scientific breakthrough. Cancer is a horrible sickness that faces our society today with no cure. However, a lot of cancer patients believe it to be a test, and when they walk away from the experience they appreciate the value of life more. “Life is what you make of it” God gives us challenges to overcome that make us stronger in the end. By having humans create babies we are playing God with few regulations on the process as Nancy Gibbs author of “Wanted: Someone to Play God” describes, “It’s a good thing that most doctors are principled professionals, since there is nothing to stop them from implanting 10 embryos in a woman hoping to give birth to a softball team”.
Allowing parents or doctors to pick the genetics of their children is a very scary topic. Both sides of the story must be looked at and weighted. In the end the harmful side effects of allowing parents to genetically design their children outweigh the benefits.
7 comments:
Your blog offers challenges to the reader. You cause your readers to think.
This is one of those topics that challenges the writer because it requires preciseness and careful use of terms and knowledge because we do not know the background, attitudes, and knowledge of the readers.
To write, "Cancer is a horrible sickness that faces our society today with no cure," is inaccurate because people with cancer are cured everyday. When they die, the die of something other than cancer.
I have some questions: In ordinary situations, who creates an embryo? Let me reword my question: When does an embryo come into being? Are not human beings involved in the creation of an embryo? In some circles, the act of beginning a new life in the womb is called "co-creation," that is God, woman, and man, all working together.
Can an embryo be created without God's assent?
Something else, what about sperm banks? They have been in existence for several years, and with no regulation. Men (even male teens) donate or sell sperm to sperm banks that in turn offer them to female customers. The ladies go to the bank, peruse a catalog that lists the characteristics of the donor/seller. So the ladies can choose the sperm of a tall, lean, dark-haired well-educated male. Is this a form of genetic engineering? Is the woman in a sense trying to determine various characteristics of her future child?
I like your point referring to Hitler's master race, having a single group of people all the same would take so much interest out of life and excluding a group of people just on hair color is plain mean.
It seemed a bit short, but other than that, it was good.
In response to theteach...I disagree with your comment,
"The ladies go to the bank, peruse a catalog that lists the characteristics of the donor/seller. So the ladies can choose the sperm of a tall, lean, dark-haired well-educated male."
I don't believe that that is an accurate statement. Often, sperm banks are used when the male in a relationship is sterile and cannot produce offspring naturally. However if he could, it is certain that at least some of his traits will be passed on to his child. If this is the case the parents would likely want a child who is similar to the future father figure. They could potentially want someone with similar characteristics. If what you say is true, than every child who was conceived with sperm from a sperm bank would end up being Derek Jeter, and that's simply not the case. If given the chance in that situation, I feel that most parents would not pick their spem donor based meerly their perceived attractiveness.
Response to theteach:
Thank you so much for your comment it was very helpful and raised some questions that I did not think of. I would like to take this time to answer some of the questions you posed.
When I wrote "Cancer is a horrible sickness that faces our society today with no cure," I was not saying that people do not survive cancer. People do survive it everyday and when they do pass, they most often pass from something other than cancer. However, there is a difference between cancer survivors and a cure to cancer. There is no miracle pill that can be taken to stop the growth of cancer cells. I believe one day that there will be such a cure, but currently we do not have one.
Some of your other questions including, "who creates an embryo?" and "can an embryo be created without God's assent?" These are all very personal questions of which I chose to leave up to the reader, and I only tired to bring my point of view out. I believe that embryo is created by a man and a women with God's own intentions in mind. I do not believe that embryos should be genetically altered to reflect the parents needs or wants, that is not, what I believe, to be God's intentions.
Sperm banks I think to be a totally different story. In my class I am fortunate enough to have one of my fellow classmates parents work at a sperm bank. Therefore, I have come to understand that sperm banks are more commonly used when men are infertile and want to have a baby. The parents look at some of the characteristics of the donor because perhaps the parents want the baby to be of the same race as them. By seeing the race or characteristics of the donor, this is no way insuring that the baby have those characteristics. For example, I have two brown hair parents, yet I have blonde hair. That is just the wonder of genetics and the way in which we are created.
We all have come to have our own personal definitions of genetic engineering. Yet I do not believe that determining which person you want to be the donor for your sperm is a form of genetic engineering. Genetic engineering is defined in the dictionary as, "Scientific alteration of the structure of genetic material in a living organism".
Thank you again for your comments. I really enjoy reading them! I hope I made myself clearing in this response.
Response to BranMan:
It is a very scary thought as to when people in power want something so bad they will do anything for it, even kill. What Hitler did during that time period is something so wrong that we need to always acknowledge and learn from it as a global community.
I agree with you a world in which everyone is the same would be very boring. We need to acknowledge the importance of others differences even if we do not agree with them. By genetic engineering embryos we eliminate some of the opportunity for people to be different and grow.
Thank you for your comment!
To jaguar:
You say you don't believe my statement "The ladies go to the bank, peruse a catalog that lists the characteristics of the donor/seller. So the ladies can choose the sperm of a tall, lean, dark-haired well-educated male."
Well, it is true. I know some women who did just this and have read about others doing so.
It is not the sole reason women or couples visit a sperm bank, but certainly it is one reason.
BTW before men go off to war, they store their sperm in sperm banks, particularly if they want children when they return. They do not know what condition they will be in when they return.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3288137,00.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20030209/ai_n12581105
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-01-26-sperm-inside_x.htm
And remember sperm banks also buy sperm. Those who need some money sell their sperm. These men don't necessarily care who purchases their sperm.
http://www.beatslabor.com/
fanzo writes: "I have come to understand that sperm banks are more commonly used when men are infertile and want to have a baby."
I don't know if it is "more commonly" used in the way you describe, but do know there are various reasons sperm banks exist.
Of course there are the women who want children but do not want to engage in a physical relationship to become pregnant.
At the time of the Gulf conflict, there was an increased use of sperm banks as repositories for soldiers who want preserve their sperm in case they cannot have children when they return from war. It has continued.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3288137,00.html
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20030209/ai_n12581105
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-01-26-sperm-ins
Sperm banks also are a way for men to make money.
http://www.beatslabor.com/
I enjoy reading your blog and responding. I hope that my response challenges your thinking. :) :)
This is the great value of blogs. We can live hundreds of miles apart and correspond about ideas that we have.
Post a Comment