A Study of Eugenics
A Study of Eugenics
Modern technology and science has created a complex issue with eugenics and gene therapy. Eugenics is defined as physically removing or replacing cells in an embryo or germ cells. Rapid advancements in genetics and embryology, has lead society scrambling to find the morality and the consequences of eugenics. The two types of genetic intervention are modifying germ cells or somatic cells. Germ cells are sex cells that affect traits and heredity of certain characteristics. Somatic cell alteration can give or take away traits, but are not intended to affect sex cells. Marc Lappe goes into detail about how germ cells are specifically morally wrong due to the fact that germ cell engineering affects future generations. I agree with that Marc Lappe that germ cell intervention affects the future generations, but also in somatic changes there are possibilities of changes in the germ cells. I think that somatic and germ cell changes should be treated the same due to the fact that the differences are a matter of when you are changing the genes. The controversy of eugenics arises from the idea of altering the natural process of birth and natural selection and using embryos to experiment eugenics. People also fear that being able to change genotypes and phenotypes will lead to discrimination and abuse of the eugenics. Currently, eugenics is not perfected and experiments with animals have shown that complications do occur. On the other side eugenics provide tremendous hope to people that have afflicting diseases and disabling traits. I will examine both sides in depth and try to give plausible solutions.
The pro-eugenic people point to the unbound medical benefits of eugenics. In the future, doctors and geneticists will be able to diagnose diseases early in the developmental stages and will be able to correct the disease before birth. Would you not give medicine and treatments to someone if available? It would be morally wrong to not treat a person if there was a working treatment for any reason. The argument can be made that an afflicted embryo has the same right to be treated, if possible. For example if an embryo is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and the gene that cures M.S. is known and the procedure is safe it would be wrong not to treat this embryo. There has always been controversy with new medical advancement. It is argued that eugenics is not natural and...