Over the years, technology has improved drastically to improve medically. Further knowledge has led us to finding cures to diseases that were once deadly but now are curable. Unfortunately, not only have further advancements in technology benefit health care, it is starting to have a negative effect. People are finding different ways to clone human DNA and people have even created designer babies. Things are definitely getting out of hand with our research into genetic processes.
The study of genetic processing was first discovered by the human genome project developed in the mid 1980's where maps of the entire genetic makeup of human beings was produced. Prior to the human genome project, the genes for hereditary disorders such as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, and Huntington's chorea had been identified. The aim of the project was to add to this list so that new rugs and genetic therapies can be developed to combat genetic disorders. Huntington's Chorea was an incurable brain disorder that strikes people in the prime of time, setting them on an irreversible course of debilitating mental break down and eventual death. Victims had been described as being trapped inside their own bodies, unable to communicate. In 1993, Dr. Michael Hayden of the University of British Columbia led a team that isolated the gene responsible for Huntington's Chorea. As a result, doctors can now use a simple DNA test to screen people with a family history of the disease and warn potential sufferers, or parents who might pass on the disorder. Cystic Fibrosis is another inherited disorder. It is associated with a single gene, which produces a protein known as CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator). Those who suffer cystic fibrosis have to inherit two defective alleles, one from each parent. Muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder that causes the weakening and deterioration of muscles. Some forms of muscular dystrophy result from defects on auto somal chromosomes and may occur in both males and females. How did something that was intended for a good cause end up so wrong? People are now trying to make babies cosmetically by duplicating DNA and genetics.
Reproductive techniques involve using invitra fertilzation or IVF to fertilize eggs with sperm in test tubes outside the mother's body in a laboratory. These techniques allow doctors and parents to reduce the chance that a child will be born with a genetic disorder. At the moment, it is possible to carry out two types of advaned reproductive technologies on humans. The first involves choosing the type of sperm that will fertilize an egg: used to determine the sex and the genes of the baby. The second technique screens embryos for a genetic disease: only selected embryos are implanted back into the mother's womb. These techniques are called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). The option to being able to choose what gender and genes of the baby displays that we've come a far way with our research, but it has gone too far. Babies should be made naturally and not scientifically. Due to the advancements in scientific research with genetic processing, the future for natural babies will be foggy because people will choose to genetically modify the baby first. This is unfair for the baby, even though it is still a fetus this is very wrong.
It is very important that we acknowledge how far technology has brought us in the possible examination of inherited genetic diseases. We have originally used our knowledge for the cure of these diseases and that is how far we should take our knowledge. We should not use our knowledge for what is bad, because religiously this is very sinful. God has created us himself and for what he sees in his plan for us. If scientific research was to modify the genes of one, it would cause a lot of problems not only for what people believe in but for also the other possible genetic diseases that are not known yet.
Biology 11. Print.
Designer Baby Picture. Web.
What is a Designer Baby? Web.
