Ramzul: Forum Presentation

Good morning everyone. Today in this forum, I will be speaking about why I am against the idea that genetic experiments have gone too far. The incredible prospects that humankind stands to gain from this technology should not be restricted by mere ethics. Clearly, I am all for it but that doesn’t mean I don’t see why people would be against it. I have read many different articles on the many things that become possible with this technology and I will now do my best to explain to you all about the subject and why we should support the research going into it.

But before that, allow me to address the concerns with this technology. I have mentioned before that we should not allow ethics to become an obstacle in our pursuit towards a better tomorrow. That is because human ethics has become the main reason why we should not go any further than where we are now.

I am not saying that our moral values are against genetic research as a whole, but rather that they are in the way of the biggest benefits that this field of knowledge has to offer. Cloning, genetic modification and stem cell research are just three of the most controversial aspects of this technology.

Cloning for instance is the process of taking a living organism’s DNA and using it to create a duplicate of that organism. Just understanding that much is enough to make one question whether it’s a crime against nature or simply a way to speed up the evolutionary progress.

Aside from the fact that most people who are aware of it oppose cloning, the research that goes into also faces many other problems. Cloning has been known for its high failure rates, living complications and the many bogus claims of successful attempts. Despite these drawbacks, there have been a few successful cases of cloning animals.

Extinct animals could be returned to the world, the food economy would receive a tremendous boost and genetic research would expand even further with the success of this technology. However, this technology could also be used for less than noble purposes such as identity theft and breaking through security devices. Alibis would become much harder to disprove as a person would actually be able to be in two places at once. With the possibilities it brings, cloning cannot be overlooked as there is so much to gain from it.

Stem cell research is still linked to cloning even though stem cells cannot be used to completely grow another organism, it still can be used to grow organs that match the DNA of the donor stem cells. This is only possible because every single one of those specialized cells in our bodies evolved from stem cells.

The controversies that this research has had to face were how they got the cells and how they intended to grow those cells. The issue with the way scientists acquired those cells was that they had to get the cells from an egg cell from ovulating women. Some people viewed this as murder claiming that even though it wasn’t human yet, the egg cell still counted as a life. However, this side of the research lost most of its opposition a few months ago when a group of scientists discovered a way to revert cheek cells back into stem cells.

Stem cell research still faces a problem though. Contrary to the method of acquiring stem cells where the opinion was still very much divided, the method of using them to grow organs became very controversial when the scientists decided to go beyond cultivating organs in test tubes and switch to growing them in animals. This meant that scientists would be modifying animals so that their children would grow up containing human organs.

This meant that scientists would be creating human animal hybrids specifically created to grow organs like kidneys, livers and hearts. Of course despite the fact that the organs came from animals, the organs grown in them would be pure human DNA. The medical implications of this process gained support as this would mean that donor organs wouldn’t be as hard to acquire as before. At the same time however, the idea of creating human hybrids sounded so blasphemous to so many that the medical benefits of this research would be ignored in favor of religious movements against it. And as such there are few countries that would actually allow this research to take place within their borders.

Unlike most genetic research, hardly anyone was opposed to the Human Genome project as it involved researching the millions of genes found in humans. The progress of this project has gone so well that they have identified over ninety eight percent of all genes found in humans. The fruits of this research would allow man to discover many things like cures for various diseases, the missing link between man and ape and most importantly, how to modify genes.

Gene modification is seen as a legal practice in many countries. Using the technology, new species of better yielding crops were born along with higher quality livestock. So far this technology has done wonders for the food economy and because of that many people support it. However, that doesn’t mean that there are no doubts towards this technology. At one time, the people of the United Kingdom were worried whether or not the crops grown in their country were safe to eat as extensive efforts had been made to create high quality vegetables. Many had believed in the exaggerated claim that eating genetically modified crops would result in mutations. This claim however is obviously false because fundamentally eating genetically modified crops would be no different than eating different species of the same vegetable.

There is a growing concern towards the future of gene modification. Many worry that in the future, it will be possible to control an unborn baby’s genes so that only desirable ones would be passed on. This idea is labeled as creating designer babies. Many believe that carrying out something like this in practice on humans will only lead to cause a lot of trouble for us.

In conclusion, the many reasons that people have to oppose this technology come from exaggerated fears and conflicts with the ethics of society. All that is limiting growth in this field of knowledge is the widespread belief that messing with our genetics will only bring us closer to our doom. Despite all these concerns, I believe that we should face these fears head on and not let them undermine the full potential of humankind.