"Chilling... That he gave us the dark side of genetic engineering in 1932 is amazing." -Providence Journal-Bulletin
I recently stumbled upon an interesting article about modern health/birth technology. It claimed that new birth control for males has been developed. I explored deeper into the subject of modern technology concerning birth and conceiving babies, and it was strangely similar to the world that Aldous Huxley predicted we would be living in. In Brave New World, the method used to conceive babies is similar to the methods of modern artificial insemination and in-vitro fertilization. Birth control technology was also mentioned in the book. I found this strangely creepy. Technology has evolved into the future Huxley predicted 70 years ago. With superior medical technology, the "old-fashioned way" of waiting to have sex after marriage, conceiving a child, and raising a family has diminished. Babies are being created and planned technologically. With the combination of technology and birth control, people can genetically plan traits of a child and when they want to have the child. Conceiving a child has developed into a method using a few injections and test tubes. I think it is wrong to plan the sex of a baby, genetic traits, and the amount of babies born. The use of Sperm Banks also bothers me because the man will never know the woman he donated his sperm to, and the woman will never know the father of her child. Is artificial reproductive technology moral?
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I think artificial reproductive technologies can be moral if they are simply used to help a couple who may be having fertility issues. However, I believe that it only retains its morality if it is only used to help the couple conceive the child and no other genetics altering is done. As I stated before if nature isn't allowed to take its path after the child is conceived, then the use of this technology becomes immoral.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both, the previous comment and the post, but what about animal genetic-altering procedures. Do you think altering the genetics of a cow to produce more meat or milk is okay, while human genetics are sacred and can't be touched? Why do we hold our own genes so much more untouchable than other animals? Why is it okay to not allow nature to take its course in animals, or is it? I'm not really sure where I stand on all these issues, but all I know is there would be a lot more famine all around the world without the use on new strains of grains that have been grown. Another question I have is: is it okay to alter genes of human babies to avoid genetic diseases? I just want to know what you all think because I'm definitely confused.
ReplyDeleteI find myself in between the two sides of why it is acceptable and why it isn’t. In some cases it may be beneficial and the right thing to do. For example if someone has a disease or problem that may not let them reproduce or something to that effect which Brandon has mentioned or maybe the couple just believes that creating a child with attributes they chose may make them happier or will benefit everyone in the future. However on the other hand it may seem that with all these advancements in technology the future children of the world are being engineered and being produced like products in a factory. It mainly depends on the opinion from one person to the next and I believe that if something like this were to happen on a public scale, it should be the choice of each individual person.
ReplyDeleteI recently read Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell, which seems irrelevant but it’s really not. In it, Powell donates her eggs (actually, she sells them for $7,500 but everyone calls it a “donation”). Anyway. She donates/sells her eggs and after doing so, brings up the issue of child support in ten years when her eggs have transformed into babies. She also says that the more rational part of her will regret this decision once they all hit puberty. Technology involving sperm and egg banks is still so new that legal procedures haven’t quite caught up yet. No one knows what the implications will be in twenty years for some kid who grew up thinking they were living with their biological mom and pop finds out that they were conceived in a test tube in Florida. I’m on the fence too about the moral or immoral values/traits for all of this genetic engineering. It’s an amazing feat to be able to cheat disease and death in children before they’re even born, but how is that going to affect God’s plan or fate?
ReplyDeleteThere is an entire field of study devoted to these thorny issues: Bioethics.
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