Thanks to technological advancements, the medical field has achieved many breakthroughs that were not possible in ancient times. These enormous breakthroughs has led to further life preservation and less medical risks.
For instance….
One of such areas of medical breakthroughs is on fertility issues. In the old days, couples who couldn't have children remained that way. They bore societal ridicule with no help whatsoever. Only a few percent got the chance and opportunity to adopt a child.
With the modern innovations available in the medical field currently, couples who can't have children, now have hope. With instruments like IVF, Ovum and uterus donation etc, many couples are happy as they carry their own babies.
For the hivelearners prompt, If prospective parents could modify their babies genes before they're born, would this be a great improvement?
I would say yes and no. My reason for saying yes is because it would improve the world by removing diseases and mutations that can possibly deform the baby, leading to healthy babies being born.
My reason for saying no is because if the motive behind gene engineering is for selfish reasons, then it would lead to chaos in the long run.
If parents could choose the traits and talents that they want in their babies such as beauty, intelligence, athleticism and so much more while also being able to remove any and every form of defect from babies to make a ”perfect baby”, would this be right?
I have always said that perfection is overrated. What do we need perfect babies for? Would that change this broken world or turn it into a paradise?
In my opinion, a perfect baby would grow up to be mechanical like a robot. Always getting things right and never ever making mistakes. What would that turn the world into?
Scientifically, this would negate one of the cell theories which states that genes transfer traits from ancestors to offsprings”. Overtime, with all this genetic engineering, so many good traits would be lost and replaced with artificials. I call them artificial because it is not in the baby's natural gene composition. With this in view, I don't think that it would be right to modify a baby's genes.
Would it be ethical?
On a personal basis, it might seem ethical. I mean, which couple would not want to have a perfect baby? A baby who doesn't stress or fall sick. A baby who would grow up to be ”picture perfect” with all the right grades and results. It's their choice and so for that couple, it might seem like the right thing to do.
But on a broader scope, it wouldn't be ethical. Imagine if gene modification was made legal, do you know that only those with enough financial resources would be able to afford it? What would happen to the poor who can't afford such? Would their babies under the ”imperfect zone”?
You can imagine the huge social divide that this would create. The so-called perfect babies would not want to associate with those babies who are deemed as imperfect and that would further lead the world through a downward spiral curve and not progress at all.
Technology is good and beneficial if used right but if it is used for selfish motives and intents, then it would cause more harm than good and in the long run destroy the world.
Thank you for reading. This is my response to the hivelearners initiative for week 168 e3
Image source : Meta Ai
