Genetic engineering in our world, as well as in the book "Brave New World".

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Genetic engineering in our world,

as well as in the book “Brave New World”

By Jimmy Jackson

There has been a steady increase in the amount of genetics related issues entering our lives ever since research on genes began.  As the advancements continue to sound more like the science fiction than what we actually believe is possible, the amount of ethical and debatable dilemmas are increasing proportionally.  In February of 1997, the news and media covered one of the largest leaps in genetic science.  When a sheep was cloned, the media exploded with coverage on this topic.  We were all amazed by this new advancement, and we started asking questions.  What else can they clone?  What are the going to use these clones for?  Many other questions rose up from that particular incident, and since then there have been even more advancements, and more questions being asked, many of them being about genetically engineering a new generation of children.  Now, because genetic engineering is enabling us to make enhancements to our lives, we should encourage the development of this new technology because it can be used to fight, possibly end genetic disease, and advance the human species to a new level.

There are obvious positive and negative aspects to enhancing and using genetic engineering.  We are entering an age where the possibility of ending genetic disease is getting closer every year.  Advancements in genetic science are making the ability to single out specific sections of DNA possible.  This will allow these sections to be studied intensely and if defects are found, they will be able to be removed or replaced, thus diminishing the amount of possible genetic diseases.  Also, there is the new possibility to enhance a person's genes; for example, we could make children smarter then the generation preceding them, creating a race of humans that will be more civilized and closer to the envisioned utopia of the future.  The possibilities are virtually endless.  But this may pose to be the negative aspect as well.  Lee M. Silver proposes the possibility of creating a genetic segregation.  Since these processes are costly, there is the possibility that only the currently elite class of citizens would be able to afford these alterations.  This would create a split between genetically enhanced humans and those who still retain their unaltered genes (4).

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Many authors on the subject of genetic engineering surreptitiously add the title of Aldous Huxley's novel, Brave New World.  This portrays a civilization so dependent on genetic engineering and cloning, that the birth of natural babies no longer exists.  This is an extremely fictitious situation, and will likely never happen.  But the threat of the population being segregated by genetic enhancements does seem possible.  It doest not necessarily have to be genetic enhancements either.  With the new technology, detecting whether a person is going to develop a genetic disease could be used to select applicants for jobs, or health ...

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