Katie tevebaugh Mrs. Nieder Honors English February 22, 2011 ...

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Katie tevebaugh

Mrs.

Nieder

Honors English

February 22, 2011

Consequences of Human

Genetic Engineering

Think of the one thi
ng you are the best at. Then

imagine you couldn’t do it anymore because
your parents decided that they wanted you to be a swimmer, a basketball player, or smarter. Human
genetic engineering reduces the child’s

say in their own life buy changing someone course that they are
supposed t
o be on. What if you just changed that famous basketball player into a decent artist? What if
you changed the president in to some stupid jock that cares for nothing but sports? Some things are not
to be messed with.


Genetic engineering in not natural. Fi
rst off what is natural? A tree, water, and flowers. Genetic
engineering is far from natural. “
Genetic

engineering
-

the technique of altering the genetic
makeup

of
cells or individual organisms by deliberately inserting/removing or altering individual gene
s.”(Suzki and
Knudison). Now, doe that
sound

natural? Genetic engineering may give you some amazing results, but
how much more likely
are you to turn into what you want instead of what you don’t?
Human

genetic
engineering is not always accurate. “
Even

when

successful, about 5% of the time the new gene get
placed in the middle of an
existing

gene creating a new mutation” (Bohlin). And that is not accurate.
Genes are something not to be messed with.


Human genetic engineering could also cause an increase of
bulling and feeling left out in most
societies and schools. Genetic engineering is not cheap and the kids whose parents want the natural
surprise of
birth will

be left in the dust.
“People would see the children of theses who decided not to
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seek genetic ad
vantages as unfit rather than an un advantage.”
(sandel 40). All the kids who get the
brains

and the athletic
abilities

will not treat the ones who don’t unfairly. If you just start thinking of the
consequences

of genetic engineering. When you start making
perfect people nothing good can come
out of it. “
Introducing

genetic engineering could herdal a bystropica that would have drastic
consequences

for society…” 5. And what if you were at the
bottom
? What if you didn’t have the money
to be on
top? People

woul
d think of you as the
bottom

of the earth.


The risks of human genetic engineering is too much. Why spend over twenty thousand dollars
on something that is not one hundred percent sure of working? “
Even

in animals
it

only works 50% of
the time” (Bohlin).
Nobody

wants to throw away twenty thousand dollars.

So I ask
you

this how far is
too far? When are other people going to put their foot down and say enough? “
The

potential of misuse
is reason enough for closing the door completely the benefits just aren’t
worth the risks” (5) and I totally
agree with them. You can only go so far.
What’s

next? Cloning?


History tends to repeat itself. There were multiple events in history when on
race

was trying to
get rid of another. And the word for this is simple. “
Eugen
ic
-

adjective, the bringing about improvements
in the type of off spring produced
” (
6). Can you think of any example of when
someone

thought it would
be a good idea to kill off a race and try to hone in on certain
futures
? During the holocaust blond hair
a
nd blue eyes is what the Nazis thought were perfect. “
The

Nazis eugenic vision is an excellent reminder
of why it is
dangerous

to give humans the power to
choice

traits
” (
Friedman
).

Just imagine if the Nazis
had the human genetic engineering
technology
. T
his world would be full of blond haired blue eyes
christens. So you tell me this would
you

really want another holocaust, cause pour
world

will be going
down a spiraling path once it is illegalized.



Some say that genetic engineering will lead to the perfect society and we will become
unstoppable. Now how crazy
does

that sound? It sounds like all of us will be doing the
something

every
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day and not doing anything out of the ordinary because we are all t
he same and we
won’t

know the
difference. But the cost
of this

would be out of the
ordinary

no dout.
”gene Therapy (when the
personwants to change something about them self
)
only is affected to the person getting it done to, it
doent pass on from generati
on” (Bohin)
. So we will be spending billions on having the perfect society
due to the fact that each baby will have to go undercertain procedures. And what will define our
definition of perfect? How will any of these diiner babies have a sence of being the
ir
own

person when
someone

else

made them who they are today? “in many cases genetic engineering violates human
rights and challenges society most baic understanding of morality and ethics” (Friedman
). I was
always

razed

to love who I was no matter what no
w what are you saying when you don’t want me to have that
big nose I was supposed to have?


As I said before Human genetic engineering reduces the child’s say in their own life. It takes the
natural

course

of child birth with the surprise away, and it isn’
t even that accurate. And when human
genetic engineering works it still has a chance of
mutating

your baby, there
goes

your perfect baby. It
also would increase the bulling in schools and change how people saw each other.
There is also a chance
that histor
y will repeat itself and someone with a sick mind will decide what they feel is perfect and start
making all babies as there visions shows. There are so many disadvantages to genetic engineering I can’t
count on one hand. The risks are overwhelming. And ju
st knowing that you are going against all of what
your parents taught you should be enough. The next time you think of what you wished you could have
been think you are the only one who is as much of you as you are and no one can take that away but
genetic

engineering, genetic engineering could cause you to be just like ever one else and reduce the
chance you have of being you.




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Knudtson, Suzuki, peter and David. Genetics. Cambridge. Harvard U Press, 1989