Genetic Engineering

8 Pages 2072 Words

Genetic Engineering: You choose Frankenstein or Einstein

What is it that makes you unique? Is it your charming smile? Perhaps it’s the dazzle in your eyes. Maybe it’s your unique personality that makes you a cut above the rest. Some would proclaim that it is our genetic composition that makes us different from everyone else. Over the past decade we have seen remarkable advancements in the field of genetic engineering. These developments have the potential to change our life, as we know it, forever. Will mankind continue to thrive in a society where genes can be patented? Only time will tell. What can be determined is that these innovations in genetic engineering come with certain advantages and disadvantages to both man and animal, and the implications are many.
The advantages of genetic engineering to mankind are countless. Genetic Engineering can be beneficial in the treatment of many diseases and injuries (George Will). The National Institute on Health has been working aggressively on a project called the Human Genome Project. This project was instituted to map the genes of humans. They hope to use this technology to prevent diseases that are genetically transmitted. This study has already enabled scientists to discover the genes responsible for transmitting diseases such as: Tay-Sachs, Sickle Cell Anemia, and Huntington’s Chorea. These diseases are all genetically linked and cause numerous physical and mental impairments and lead to premature death. The discovering of these genes allows for these diseases to be detected early, treated more effectively, and permits parents to determine if they carry the gene responsible for passing these fatal diseases to their offspring. The Human Cloning Foundation has been performing studies for the past decade on the benefits of cloning cells for treating injuries. They predict that in the next decade we will be able to clone our cells and use them to rev...