Those who accept or are in favour of legalising organ transplant say that the selling of organs can help the poor to improve their dire sates and the buying of organs can help the patient to live on. If one party is willing to donate in exchange for a better standard of living and the other is receptive of a donated organ so that he or she can live on, organ transplant should be allowed to continue. Moreover, this would help the poor break out of the poverty cycle and the end result would be a better life for both the donor and the recipient. In Indonesia, kidneys are sold as ordinary goods for a high sum of money and organ transplants are legal with the condition that he donor and the receiver must have kin relations with each other. This has led to fabricated documents on the relationship of two completely unrelated people so as to facilitate the process of organ transplant. While I find the idea of having someone else’s body parts within me functioning my body disgusting, perhaps when I am in need of an organ when one of mine has failed, I would not be so quick to judge. Opponents to organ transplant argue that our moral values are questioned when we do not cherish our bodies and sell away our organs for a sum of money. This process of organ transplant may also lead to a large group of people at a disadvantage, especially the poor, as those who are sick are unable to sell their failed organs for money to visit the doctor neither are they able to afford a new organ due to its high price. Hence, organ transplant would lead to the erosion of morals that keep our society balanced as more would devalue human life, especially the uneducated, and hence, lead to an array of social problems like putting the organ up for auction and selling it to the highest bidder. Ethics encompasses social responsibility that prevents us from doing something that will harm another. This means that science cannot be separated from ethical concerns as there are always some who may be disadvantaged from scientific developments.
Another scientific invention that has led to an outrage of violation of human values and morals is the concept of designer babies. The improvements in science have allowed us to change certain features of ours that we are unhappy with through plastic surgery. Since plastic surgery is allowed in most countries, we should take a step further and allow us to choose the features we want from the very start of life. It is ever parents’ dream to see their child grow up to be a charming, good-looking and smart person. The list of characteristics we wish the next generation to have is endless. Designer babies are able to fulfill every parent’s dream of choosing the gender, features and traits in their children. This would also lessen the occurrence of over-production of children for women in less developed countries due to the traditional mindset that having a son is better than a daughter. However, I believe that this is an atrocious claim to make. We are only encouraging the mindset of gender inequality and all sorts of discrimination by approving the notion of parents choosing the lives they want for their child instead of accepting them for who they are. As adults, those who want to alter their appearance through plastic surgery have made their individual decisions about it. A newborn does not have the chance to choose the features they want for themselves. Moreover, the concept of designer babies is similar to World War 1, when Adolf Hitler ordered the killing of those who are deemed inferior and encouraging elites of a society to reproduce. If we can disprove Hitler’s actions as immoral, then designer babies are equally unethical as well. Hence, we can see yet again that science cannot be separated from ethical concerns.
Ethics maintains the order in a society and keeps the social stability. With new scientific inventions and discoveries, ethical concerns are raised to prevent society from exploiting science at the expense of those who are unable to benefit from it. Euthanasia, for one, goes against the religious beliefs of those whose religion disagree with taking the life of another human being under any circumstances as they believe it is morally wrong to commit such an act, hence, ethical concerns are raised by these people regarding the usage of euthanasia brought about by science. Organ transplant places the poor at a disadvantage, going against the social responsibility of a society to take care of the disadvantaged, and hence, ethical concerns are brought up to question the morality of this science. Lastly, a designer baby is another scientific discovery that goes against our moral values as it promotes rejection of those deemed imperfect. Hence, science cannot be separated from ethical concerns.