Genetic Engineering - Essay Example

This paper declares that one method that is gaining ground to cure genetically impaired individuals without so much objection on the part of its people is genetic engineering because it is not forced at individuals to be engineered, specially to eliminate defects. Genetic engineering that involves elimination of defects is called negative genetic engineering. Going beyond this, to bring about improvement in normal people is by contrast positive engineering. This discussion explores that genetic disorder causes problems to individuals in terms of sickness or diseases like autism, diabetes and cystic fibrosis.

These genetic diseases can be cured by gene therapy or by negative gene engineering. The principle behind negative genetic engineering is that a virus which is non-virulent or non-pathogenic will serve as a delivery system to insert a piece of DNA into the cell of the individual person with genetic disorder. The process is deemed successful when the modified cells divide normally to produce cells that express the trait that was missing before the individual person received the copy of that gene.

This gene therapy provide good outlook at treating other maladies that are menacing many of our people with genetic disorder. While negative genetic engineering removes genetic disorders, positive genetic engineering enhances human. The latter makes those who are already healthy superior to the average. It makes people stronger, faster, smarter. It enhances intelligence, stamina and physical attributes; it increases immunity of people to diseases caused by viruses. These changes can easily be attained when sex cells are the ones engineered during the critical period of the union between the egg and sperm cells.

These changes are inheritable in all succeeding generations, posing permanent alterations of the human kind. Moral Implications of Genetic Engineering "If we produce a group of people who turn out worse than expected, we will have to live with them[.] The possibility of an irreversible disaster is a strong deterrent. It is enough to make some people think we should rule out genetic engineering altogether, and to make others think that, while negative engineering is perhaps acceptable, we should rule out positive engineering." (p.193) The above-mentioned quotes implies that "the benefits from negative engineering are clearer and that because its aims are more modest, disastrous mistakes are less likely." (p.193) Positive genetic engineering seemed immoral and unethical when one of its potential products is a