The Ethical Issues Of Human Genetic Engineering

Superior Essays
From the humble beginnings of specific breeding to manually changing DNA, genetic engineering has been controversial to say the least. As genetic engineering continues to grow more ethical issues seem to pop up, especially when dealing with human genetic engineering. There are many different uses for genetic engineering, yet human genetic engineering is to unethical to continue. To fully understand why human genetic engineering shouldn’t be allowed one needs to understand the history of genetic engineering, and how it is actually done. After that you can better grasp some of the ethical issue presented by human genetic engineering, which I will talk about last.
When first starting out genetic engineering wasn’t referred to as genetic engineering,
…show more content…
If you look closely at human genetic engineering, you could probably find a hundred small issues to nitpick. Although, I am just going to focus on some of the broader moral issues in regards to human genetic engineering. One broad moral or ethical issue is that changing DNA is an unnatural process. Having your DNA changed is not an activity that would happen without tampering of some sort. With the claim that we shouldn’t genetically modify humans because it’s unnatural warrants the idea of unnatural being bad. A state of unnatural can threaten the safety of people. Since it isn’t natural we don’t know how it can affect us and the world we live in. It would be in are interest and safety to not use unnatural practices, including human genetic engineering …show more content…
Some of these questions have place in the ethical issue of human genetic engineering. One of the questions with significance to human genetic engineering ethics is should research be limited, and how would you decide those limits? When thinking more about this question it can raise ethical issues in how far we should be allowed to study or research genetic engineering on humans. Is it ethical for researchers to have no limits on what they can study in accordance with human genetic engineering? Those are questions that we need to think about going forward with genetic engineering. In the current time we don’t have the answers to those questions, and until we can answer those questions human genetic engineering should not be

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Scientists want to be able to control what the next generation is like so they can make the future successful. Genetically engineering offspring contradicts nature . Therefore, it will have more setbacks than advantages.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    One controversial topic that provokes debate is genetic modification. In the essay “Proposed Treatment to Fix Genetic Diseases Raises Ethical issues” the author Rob Stein explains the process of genetic engineering and suggests a solution. The government is debating if the should let scientists “make changes in some of the genetic material” in the egg so the baby will not have certain genes. The main goal is to “help women deliver healthy, normal children.” There are some risks with this process such as birth defects.…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Cell Structures-DBQ Genetic engineering is the changing of genetics for different reasons. Some reasons might be changing the genes for the better, Some not so much. Genetic engineering is a good thing in some conditions. Don’t create a half turnip, half trout, half human. I do think that you should help to cure diseases through genetic engineering.…

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Cook-Deegan and Maienschein abstain from arguing for or against genetic engineering rather the argument lies in the fact that the public should decide actively instead of passively. Cook-Deegan and Maeinschein’s introduction does a good job of putting into context how far genetic engineering has progressed, but the shift from the recent advancements of genetic engineering to history of the genetic engineering is abrupt. The beginning of the paper leads a different way than where the paper's purpose is. Cook-Deegan and Maienschein main function of this paper is to make apparent to the public that they are currently deciding passively which is never a good way to decide. Cook-Deegan and Maienschein are discussing much more than just genetic engineering.…

    • 964 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    SUMMARY/PRECIS Professor Ronald Green of Dartmouth University, in his article, Building Baby from Genes Up, addresses the topic of whether or not genetic engineering is a viable technological advancement for our society to pursue and argues that although there are many potential drawbacks, the overall benefits of genetic engineering outweigh its downfalls. He supports this claim by addressing the variety of benefits that genetic engineering can offer, then by categorically refuting counterarguments and finally by presenting his opinion for why each downfall of genetic engineering is surmountable. Green’s purpose is to shed light on both sides of the argument when it comes to genetic engineering, while posing the idea that genetic engineering…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Genetic Engineering DBQ

    • 370 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Genetic engineering used to be the thing the scientists experimented on plants and animals but now humans. I dont think its right to change the way people live life just to either look a little better or be a little smarter. It's okay in some situations, for instance when someone has really bad pain and it is never ending. We need something to fix it that is not pain killers. Instead we should just have surgery and never feel that amount of pain again but just enough pain to the point where we don't hurt yourself without knowing it (Doc 2).…

    • 370 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gattac Designer Babies

    • 891 Words
    • 4 Pages

    and that should take its natural course. Although there are exceptions in my opinion. This can advance the human race into a stronger race than before. I believe that genetic engineering should just be used for health improvement and body characteristics.…

    • 891 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Parents may want their soon to be child to live a long, healthy life, but if the doctor makes a mistake, it will be the opposite. Parents take the benefit of the doubt and choose to ignore this risk. Another reason genetic engineering is immoral is that it is unethical. Many people think this is wrong and goes against what some religions believe. Some believe that everyone is born how they look for a reason or purpose, but this goes completely against that thought.…

    • 833 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The development of this technology will lead to a society gap between those who are genetically enhanced and those who have “natural genes”. Additionally, this manipulation will also deprive a child from its natural rights and will cause hardships in the future. Lastly, genetic engineering has the potential of ending the life of the embryo due to its relatively new technology. This manipulation of genes will result in catastrophic outcomes that will harm…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Nowadays, a tremendous number of technologies are developing relentlessly. Dreamlike technologies came into existence one after another, and humans know no bounds. Finally, new technologies that may bring genetic modifications of human beings possible are emerging. However, genetic modification is controversial since it is potentially both powerful and harmful. Numerous movies and novels have been depicted what the world would be like if the genetic engineering became popular.…

    • 1366 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Today in the field of genetics, professionals and civilians are faced with a wide spectrum of ethical dilemmas pertaining to the field of genetics. Genetics is the scientific study of how genes control the characteristics of plants and animals (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). The field of Genetics is growing rapidly with new discoveries everyday leading to many controversial topics pertaining to recent discoveries in the field. The nature of the information gained from genetic testing, raises more ethical issues compared to other health information.…

    • 1422 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is a scientific fact that, over time, animals and plants alike change and evolve to be better suited to their environment. Using modern scientific methods, we are now capable of similar genetic alterations, but at a significantly accelerated pace. Specifically, we can alter the genetic material of nearly anything we like, and produce a new, better, more prosperous version of the original organism. Now, this sounds all well and good, but there tends to be a certain stigma about performing such things on humans. Logically speaking, human genetic experimentation should be allowed.…

    • 600 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The biggest argument people have against genetic modification is that God should have the ultimate power, and genetically engineering human beings to be different than the way God created them is impious. (Arnold) This side of the argument suggests that it is not up to human beings to advance the human race. Even with genetic corruption, people were created in the image of God, therefore changing that image would be wrong. Some are against germline manipulation from a scientific standpoint rather than religious beliefs. They believe that because genetic modification is performed by human beings, mistakes that some engineers make will be passed on to future generations, ultimately leaving the human race in a worse situation than before.…

    • 1677 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The first reason is that genetic modification is very risky. There are a lot of dangerous and harmful changes and effects that would get passed on(citation title). The next reason is that it will ruin the society. When genetic modification becomes acceptable and ethical, where would the borderline for the safety, rules, and regulations be (Barnett 499)? It will not only destroy the morals and ethics of people, but the future of the world.…

    • 1059 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Those who believe that it’s ethical think it could create the “master race”, where humans will have fully evolved with the newer technology to create the engineered babies. This could cause them to become more intelligent, logical, attractive and healthy. This, however, could create a gap in society since those that are genetically engineered are different since they are not technically born as a normal human. The technology created is not tested well enough for it to be 100% safe so it could be dangerous and if it’s not done correctly, the embryo could be…

    • 1049 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics