Genetic modification has been around for many decades, and in the field, progress is made everyday. The definition of genetic modification is as follows, “the direct manipulation of an organism's genome using biotechnology.” Obviously, anyone can feel an uneasy pit in their stomach after reading that definition, and they should. Just recently, in late April of 2015, Chinese researchers from Sun Yat-sen University reported the first successful modification of a human embryo (www.theconversation.com). This experiment brings forth the question, “Should humans allow themselves to be genetically modified,” and the answer is no. Imagine parents who just discovered that their child has the possibility of being born with Cystic Fibrosis, a common genetic
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Human genetic modification on babies is useless and may worsen certain situations. As technology advances, there are more ways to test children for genetic disorders before they are born. Vitro fertilization and pre-implantation genetic screening are two techniques used to find genetic disorders and can allow the parents to make a decision based on the results (terminate, etc) making gene modification useless (http://www.advancedfertility.com). This allows parents to decide if they want to have the child or try again. Genetically modified babies also cause a multitude of issues. The babies would be considered “fake” by some people because they don’t share their parent’s genes because they were edited. This can also cause paternity test issues since neither of the parents could match the child’s DNA 100%. The cost of genetically modifying one's child would be astronomical. Its price could go up to $235,000 US Dollars or more, which is about the same cost of raising an average child up to the age of 26, not including college, other payments, etc (http://www.worldwatch.org). Compared to other ways of making sure children are healthy, such as getting them tested (pre-implantation genetic screening), Vitro-fertilization, frozen embryo transfer, etc, it costs a mere $17,000-$25,000 plus medication. If those are still too expensive, there are always the basic ways of …show more content…
The use of gene therapy is also another process that uses genetic modification that causes more harm than good. When the genes of an adult are modified, some may say the risk is greater because there is no going back, so when gene therapy is used to treat genetic disorders, there are high chances of the cells being damaged, ultimately causing cancer or another disease. The technology used to do this has become slightly safer, but there is still a great chance of the immune system having a reaction to the treatment, an infection caused by the vector virus meant to inject new DNA (recovered ability to spread the infection), and much more. As the DNA of humans is changed and further manipulated, humans themselves change. As humans become less human from changing and eliminating certain diseases, they are also getting rid of the alleles that cause the disorders, which is not necessarily good. For example, the allele for Sickle-Cell Anemia causes a greater resistance to malaria, which nearly half the population is susceptible to obtaining (www.newscientist.com). Although the disorder may be harmful, the allele of its own is helpful. The change of DNA changes the human germline and once it’s changed, it won’t be the same as it was before. The human germline is, in simple terms, the genes that are passed down to the parent’s offspring that forever have an effect on
Human genetic modification on babies is useless and may worsen certain situations. As technology advances, there are more ways to test children for genetic disorders before they are born. Vitro fertilization and pre-implantation genetic screening are two techniques used to find genetic disorders and can allow the parents to make a decision based on the results (terminate, etc) making gene modification useless (http://www.advancedfertility.com). This allows parents to decide if they want to have the child or try again. Genetically modified babies also cause a multitude of issues. The babies would be considered “fake” by some people because they don’t share their parent’s genes because they were edited. This can also cause paternity test issues since neither of the parents could match the child’s DNA 100%. The cost of genetically modifying one's child would be astronomical. Its price could go up to $235,000 US Dollars or more, which is about the same cost of raising an average child up to the age of 26, not including college, other payments, etc (http://www.worldwatch.org). Compared to other ways of making sure children are healthy, such as getting them tested (pre-implantation genetic screening), Vitro-fertilization, frozen embryo transfer, etc, it costs a mere $17,000-$25,000 plus medication. If those are still too expensive, there are always the basic ways of …show more content…
The use of gene therapy is also another process that uses genetic modification that causes more harm than good. When the genes of an adult are modified, some may say the risk is greater because there is no going back, so when gene therapy is used to treat genetic disorders, there are high chances of the cells being damaged, ultimately causing cancer or another disease. The technology used to do this has become slightly safer, but there is still a great chance of the immune system having a reaction to the treatment, an infection caused by the vector virus meant to inject new DNA (recovered ability to spread the infection), and much more. As the DNA of humans is changed and further manipulated, humans themselves change. As humans become less human from changing and eliminating certain diseases, they are also getting rid of the alleles that cause the disorders, which is not necessarily good. For example, the allele for Sickle-Cell Anemia causes a greater resistance to malaria, which nearly half the population is susceptible to obtaining (www.newscientist.com). Although the disorder may be harmful, the allele of its own is helpful. The change of DNA changes the human germline and once it’s changed, it won’t be the same as it was before. The human germline is, in simple terms, the genes that are passed down to the parent’s offspring that forever have an effect on