What Are The Ethical And Social Implications Of Genetic Engineering?

9 Pages 2130 Words

ohibited? But even these questions are usually rooted in more comprehensive questions of meaning and purpose in human life. Because genetic engineering brings new human power, it raises to new importance many old questions about the use and direction of power.

1. Alterations of particular somatic cells
Attempts to alter the genes of particular cells in individuals who suffer from recognized diseases of genetic etiology are comparable to other forms of experimental therapy. Accordingly, they should be undertaken only when necessary because other forms of adequate treatment are unavailable and only with the usual protection for human subjects of research. These include the requirement of the informed consent of the patient-subject or a proper substitute decision-maker and prior approval of the experiment's scientific and ethical merits by appropriately constituted bodies. Prior to commencing such an experiment, it would be desirable to have an understanding of the means by which new DNA will be incorporated into the cells, be regulated and be expressed.
So long as genes were unalterable, the burdens that genetic endowment imposed may have been unfair, but they were at least not injustices of the type that result from any human agency. The ability to alter human genes changes this. Henceforth, the choice to alter one gene but not another will become a matter requiring ethical justification. The community may well agree that certain conditions are so deleterious as to deserve first call on resources of genetic engineering. Beyond these polar cases, however, choice about genetic engineering becomes a matter of subjective judgment which will differ according to personal values.

2. Alterations involving germ-line cells
Graver concerns would be raised were changes to be brought about in the DNA of germ-line as well as somatic cells, as then not only is the individual changed but all descendents, in perpetuity. The possibilities for int...