Genetic Prefection

"What if you could have genetic perfection? Would you change who you are, if you could?"This quote from Repo: The Genetic Opera is also a moral dilemma that, chances are, our society will be asking ourselves in the next five to fifty years. This idea begs many questions, the answers of which can be confusing, frightening, and possibly recursive. Should we allow scientists to abnormally extend life? Or what about forced evolution; should or should we not be able to control our own genetic destination? Lastly – and easily the most frightening – should we allow genetic or surgical procedures as a possible fashion statement? With these implications on the horizon, we may just see a revolution in genetics similar to the technological revolution of the eighties.

Before we begin, let us discover what gene therapy is and how it works in a general sense. According to the Human Genome Project, gene therapy is "a technique for correcting defective genes responsible for disease development." When it comes to performing this technique there are several approaches. To quote the project;

A normal gene may be inserted into a nonspecific location within the genome to replace a nonfunctional gene,

An abnormal gene could be swapped for a normal gene through homologous recombination,

The abnormal gene could be repaired through selective reverse mutation, which returns the gene to its normal function,

The regulation (the degree to which a gene is turned on or off) of a particular gene could be altered

Now that we have a basic understanding, let's move on the issues at hand.

Most prominently, gene therapy is advertised to be the cure all of diseases, such as genetic disorders as well as cancer and many others. Recently there have been breakthrough in the cure for AIDS and leukemia using gene therapy. However, one of the side effects of this would be increasing the maximum age level of almost everyone. Wouldn't it be nice to live forever, and be able to tell your great great grand children about life in the late nineties? Well with advent of gene therapy, this may be a possibility. However there's a down side to this; what happens when the population continues to grow and no one is dying. If this is the case there may be a potential crisis on our hands, anywhere from housing to food shortages. Our only solutions would be space colonization or self population control .

Another concern that could be brought about with the advent of gene therapy and the genetic revolution could be forced human evolution. What if you could adjust you genes so that you are specifically good at something? For instance, adjusting your eyes to see at night. Or altering vocal chords to produce a nicer singing voice. These are just the beginnings of things that could be possible if we manipulate our own genes to suit our environment. Right now many scientists believe that humans have stopped evolving,]. If this is true, than in the future in order for our species to continue to survive, this may become a necessity. But when will we know if we have gone too far?

The last, and the by far the most terrifying in my opinion, would have to be gene therapy as a cosmetic procedure. While this may be a quite a way off, seeing as gene therapy is not perfected, but imagine what would happen in our society culturally and physically. Say you were born with brown eyes and wanted blue. Well for a small fee and quick injections it could be yours. Along these lines are the potential for things that humans aren't suppose to have; anything from third arms, to having horns as a fashion statement. This is a very scary use of gene therapy.

In conclusion, gene therapy has much to offer us as a society, and as the human race as a whole. With the advent of curing disease we will be able to virtually eliminate death caused by anything from common ailments to complex disorders . With control of our genes we will be able to continue humanities evolutionary track as we see fit. Finally, we will have complete control over the way or bodies look and behave. So I will leave you with this quote;

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, con a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein.

Citations:

· DeNoon, Daniel. "'Major Advance' in HIV Gene Therapy." WebMD - Better information. Better health.. 16 Feb. 2009. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/news/20090216/hiv-gene-therapy-major-advance>.

"Gene Therapy." Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 11 June 2009. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/medicine/genetherapy.shtml#whatis>.

"Human Evolution." A Relationship Between Evolution, Genetics, Morality, Ethics, Psychology, Education, and Culture. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://www.onelife.com/evolve/manev.html>.

Michael, Michael. "Gene therapy has promise, pitfalls for society - Science." The Johns Hopkins News-Letter. 6 Nov. 2009. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://media.www.jhunewsletter.com/media/storage/paper932/news/2006/11/09/Science/Gene-Therapy.Has.Promise.Pitfalls.For.Society-2453688.shtml>.

"Promising Gene Therapy Could Rejuvenate Aging Brain Networks." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. 2 May 2000. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/05/000501081815.htm>.

Weiss, Rick. "washingtonpost.com: Scienc

e on the Ethical Frontier." washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines. 12 Oct. 1997. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/science/ethical/cosmetic.htm>.