Modified Humans Research Paper

The ethical debate that centers around how much humans should be able to change their own qualities and their surroundings has been a major topic of conversation for the past century. According to the Big Bang theory, there has been life on earth for 3.6 billion years. The human species has only existed for about 2500 years, however, only about a span of a few years ago had we develop biotechnologies advanced enough to deeply explore our DNA. In the 1980s people read science fiction stories about handheld robots as intelligent as humans, not knowing that one day it would be perceived as normal. Just like them, presently, what we assume we know about genetic engineering will be changed forever. A recent breakthrough discovery of a new technology called CRISPR (Clustered Regulatory Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) has reduced the cost of biotech research by 99% and what took years to accomplish can now be done within a week. CRISPR has the potential to change humanity forever; curing all known diseases, designing super humans, and giving us eternal youth. Let’s start off with the history of biotech manufacturing. Through selectively breeding, humans have been practicing genetic engineering for thousands of years. It wasn’t until the discovery of DNA (Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid) that we were able to understand the potential in this science. DNA acts like instructions dictating the being carrying it. If you change the instructions, the being will behave and be a completely different existence. So as exciting as CRISPR, it is still a first generation technology being developed as you are reading this. The first genetically modified mice was born in 1974. It allowed mice to become a tool for scientific research. In 1999, the first human gene experiment ended in tragedy. The death of an Arizona teen, Jesse Gelsinger, disturbed the worldwide gene therapy research for years. In more recent years, CRISPR was put to test on several patients to correct a gene defect, when it also ended in tragedy. The FDA shut down CRISPR up until recently. In 2015, Chinese scientists cut off HIV viruses in rats by injected doses of CRISPR into their tails. Once it proved to be successful a further look into CRISPR shows us that diseases such as herpes can soon be eradicated with treatment of CRISPR. It can also defeat one of our worse enemies, cancer. Cancer occurs when infected cells refuses to die and hides itself from the immune system. CRISPR gives us the ability to see these cells and fix it. Somewhere in the future, getting treated for cancer could mean getting …show more content…
Although the change is gradual there is no doubt one day we will live in a world with super humans. Scientists have already started to focus on eliminating deadly diseases from a person’s family tree. The first designer babies won’t have much modification but as CRISPR gets more refined, things like height, eye color, and intelligence can all be modified in the snap of a finger. Most people will argue that NOT using genetic engineering is unethical because it causes the child to live a life of suffering. Of course, not everyone will agree. Religious groups argue that humans should not play the role of God. Modifying human embryos is indeed unnatural but if it used for the greater good there is no arguing against