- The very thought of modifying one’s traits and genome was unheard of 50 years ago. With the development of CRISPR technology, we have the ability to erase the diseases, flaws, and anomalies that occur within humans. This tech opens the door to many different abilities and questions about where humans will go from here. Harris and Darnovsky posit the advantageous and disadvantageous nature of genome mapping, and in turn embryo modification. One of the most powerful argument is made by Harris, when he states that over “7.9 million children are born with a serious defect of genetic or partially genetic origin” (Harris, 2). The ability to catch these traits before they present themselves in children that are born is huge and will change the way that we view the world and having children. It could be monetarily impactful because less resources will be needed to aid these children. However, the moral implication of this is that we could be creating a new race of people that are genetically manufactured, opening the door to another huge set of challenges because we don’t know what these people would face.
- There is less of a question of if it should be done and more of a question of the time it will take us to fully commit. Before we do dive headfirst into this new technology I believe that we need to take a step back as a society and see where we are going.I think the largest issue here is of regulation and where we would draw the line in the future. In this way I definitely agree with Darnovsky when she says that there really aren’t any boundaries as of late. Yes, genetic modification can and should be used in some circumstances but we really need to define what the parameters should be. I am not educated enough on this topic to be able to define who should be able to use this tech and who is barred from it but I do think that it is crucial that we have regulation.
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I agree wholeheartedly with you that we should modify humans but that the question really isn’t that simple. Like you said, we need to take a step back and consider all of the pros and cons of genetically modifying humans. Yes it can help people, but it also has the capacity to be enormously unfair. I also do not feel nearly educated enough to draw any actual lines, but I don’t think anyone needs to be an expert in the field to see that this can very much be a benefit to our society.