| final draft of germ line |
[Sep. 21st, 2006|09:13 pm] |
Germ line manipulation is a fairly new technology that is being researched; it deals with the alteration of human DNA. As with most new technologies, it is a two- sided sword. On the one side, it has the potential of eliminating almost all genetically transferred diseases and disorders. On the other side, it is also capable of changing the features of a child, to literally customize children. With the ability to play God, the subject of germ line research has become highly controversial, both morally and ethnically.
The potential diseases that could be cured by germ line include Cystic Fibrosis, Down Syndrome, Muscular Dystrophy, Hemophilia A, Sickle Cell Anemia, just to name a few. People without these sicknesses know not the pain and agony that must be endured day in and day out; they know nothing of the effects it has on the family that must helplessly watch their loved ones suffer. Some of these people would rather die than live like they do, and still others are so far gone that they have no perception anything is wrong in the first place. Sadly enough, suicide has been the option taken in some cases. For the families, mental turmoil has followed them as they stand on the sidelines watching their loved one. No person can open his mouth to try and explain what it is like unless he/she has been there and felt the hurt first hand. It is an indescribable emotion, one needing to be embraced before it can be understood.
Science and medicine have been advancing faster and faster with each passing year. The biggest push now is to find a cure for cancer and AIDS; benefit runs, walk-a-thons, charity concerts are all put on in order to raise money for the research needed. It is great to have such a push for the bettering of humankind, but it also shows the hypocrisy in society today. Once a cure for something is found, it is deemed unethical and protested against. How can a person claim germ line wrong and then go to a cancer walk? It does not work that way, if someone wants to find “The Cure” then he/she should not protest the methods used to obtain “The Cure”. People need to reexamine their own lives, to see what they would do if it was their child or sibling who would have a serious illness from birth or a chance to live a full healthy life with the help of germ line procedures. Only then is it possible to see who is truly against it.
According to Marc Lappe in Stepping Back From the Germ Line, “the only way to treat a genetic disease in your family and prevent its likelihood in your children is to participate in a trial of a radical new therapy called ‘germ line engineering’” (Lappe). With the ability to virtually eliminate some of the deadliest of diseases from being passed on to future generations, why is there even a question? Given the option between a healthy baby and a handicapped one, it does not even seem like an option at all, and with germ line, it does not have to be.
The Council for Responsible Genetics was quoted saying, “germ line modification is not needed in order to save the lives or alleviate suffering of existing people” (Council for Responsible Genetics). No one ever said it was. Germ line cannot fix what has already been done, but it can prevent it from happening in the first place. The cure is in stopping the spread, not fixing the sick.
In the 1940’s a German man by the name of Adolph Hitler had an idea for a perfect race of a blond haired, blue eyed, white children. There are people who feel that germ line is no different; that it is trying to create a superior race full of custom people. According to Richard Lynn of the University of Ulster, “what is here is not genocide”. He goes on to say, “evolutionary progress means the extinction of the less competent” (Lynn). No matter the actual chain of events, divine or evolutional, it is a fact of nature that the weak will not survive on their own and that eventually they will die. Why let them suffer through that? Why not give them the chance of a normal life? The weak in our society need not be weak much longer, not with this break through in research.
So, in the process of curing disorders, it is also possible to potentially create a custom child, picking and choosing his/her near every feature and characteristic. In such a shallow society today, is that really all that unnatural? The Secretary of the World Transhumanist Association, James Hughes, states, “if women are allowed the reproductive right or choice to choose the father of their child, with his attendant characteristics, then they should be allowed the right to choose the characteristics from a catalog” (Hughes). Every girl wants Mr. Right for the father of her baby, but there are only so many Mr. Rights to go around and not every girl gets her own. Why should she be miserable that she could not find a guy she felt was perfect for her to have kids with when she could be perfectly happy with a normal child she tweaked a little?
Some experts feel that germ line therapy will cause a separation between the rich and the poor, benefiting the rich and further depressing the poor. If this new therapy was used as a cure, the government would most likely step in and assist in the funding. That along with insurances would greatly off set the cost, making it available to the upper and lower classes together. On the other hand, if the government does not intervene and germ line is use to alter the physical properties pre-birth, then only the rich would be able to afford it.
Some things will happen regardless of what a person, a group, or even society wants. Lester Thurow, a professor at MIT, put it plainly by saying the, “some will hate it - germ line engineering - and some will love it, but biotechnology is inevitably leading to a world in which plants, animals, and human beings are going to be partly man made” (Thurow). Germ line research will continue, and eventually it will be perfected, coming into common practice. It may not happen in this country, or any country of high economic status, but the morals and beliefs of all countries are not the same, and scientists will move around until they find a place to conduct their research without prosecution. The question is not whether the technology will be perfected, but rather how it comes to be.
The only way to ensure that germ line is not used to “play God” is to legalize it and bring it under government oversight. Without government supervision and funding, scientist will have free range to practice and play with people’s genes as they see fit. With America being a free country, the choice of whether or not to participate in the therapy will lie solely with the individual involved, much like the issue of abortion today. Legal or not, germ line engineering will be put into practice; how it is used is up to who is in control.
Claims have been made that germ line will make people fake, almost not human. The Saheli Women’s Resource Center stated that, “engineering appears to be the manufacture of a human being to suit exact specifications” (Saheli Women’s Resource Center). How are plastic surgery and other cosmetic modifications any different? Do they not manufacture humans to fit exact specification? Yet, they are in common practice. Modifying the human race today, especially in America, is past just the physical looks. Neuro-shock therapy and other extreme thought reconstructive procedures can change the way a person thinks to make them more socially acceptable. No genetic manipulations are needed to manufacture humans; it is already being done every day, with total legality, and not very many people are up in arms about it.
A world without mental or physical handicaps, a world in which some are given a chance at living they never would have had before. American society is full of hypocrisy, they will have plastic surgery and “Race for the Cure” to cancer, but they will not support a potential treatment to multiple disorders. Of course, the fact of the matter is, it is an inevitability, bound to happen irregardless. Even the anti-extremist to germ line engineering, John Robertson was quoted stating this when he bluntly said, “genetically engineered sub-species…are inevitable…whether we like it or not” (Robertson). Modern problems call for modern solutions, legalize germ line engineering.
Council for Responsible Genetics, “Position Paper on Human Germ line Manipulations”, 1992, Sep 16, 2006. <http://www.genewatch.org/programs/cloning/germlineposition.html>.
Hughes, James, “Embracing Change with All Four Arms”, 1996, Sep 16,2006
<http://www.changesurfer.com/hlth/genetech.html>.
Lappe, Marc, “Stepping Back from the Germline”, Sep16, 2006 <http://www.cetos.org/articles/steppingback.html>.
Lynn, Richard, Interview in Newsday, January 9 1994, Sep 17, 2006 online at <http://www.genetics-and-society.org/overview/quotes/advocates.html>.
Robertson, John, “Children of Choice: Freedom and the New Reproductive Technologies”, 1994, Sep 16, 2006, online at <http://www.genetics-and-society.org/analysis/promoencouraging/mainstream.html>.
Saheli Women’s Resource Center, “Reproductive Rights in the Indian Context”, Feminist Strategies, March 2001, Sep 16, 2006, online at <http://www.genetics-and-society.org/overview/quotes/opponents.html>.
Thurow, Lester, Creating Wealth: The New Rules for Individuals, Companies and Nations in a Knowledge-Based Economy, 1999, Sep17, 2006, online at <http://www.eugenics.net/papers/gwooz.html>. |
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