genetic engineering (moral crime?)

Falstaff

what is true?

Sandok

I don't see what's so bad with it... We are against it nowadays because morally and ethically its wrong, but once people get past the stigma, it only has benefits.

Genetic diseases, help the humane race in simple aspects (anti-poison and anti-infection like Komodo Dragons) that don't "change" the spieces in anyway.

Anyways, if one day we WANT to survive and get off this planet, we'll have to go through genetic engineering anyways, given that our bodies aren't made for space travel unlike what Star Trek and such want us to believe

Falstaff

Truly there are benefits, however given what human beings have done in the past with new technology it wouldnt surprise me if the eventual rise of the human hypertype or superhuman will happen.

fobis

While genetic engineering (and gene therapy) can certainly abused in a way to create "super-humans", the potential benefits are certainly good reasons to continue pursuing gene therapy.

The only way to truly prevent gene therapy from being abused is to make sure that anyone who can perform gene therapy (obviously doctors) are rigorously trained in some sort of ethics class or are required to not allow gene therapy for anything but particular genetic ailments.

Certainly germ-line gene therapy can be immeasurably valuable, especially to those who know that their unborn child will likely have a particular genetic disease or the like. If a baby could be prevented from having Downs Syndrome from day 1, I see no reason to stop that.

And obviously, somatic gene therapy would be useful for those already with certain diseases such as SCID (Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Disorder => bubble boy) and many others.

Gene therapy does venture very far into the territory of where to draw the line before you're playing god. And while I am Christian, I still feel that if gene therapy can be used to improve the quality of life of any human, let it be used.

BlueMak

I don't have any children, but I know that if through genetic engineering I would know my kids would grow without the risk for cancer for example, there is nothing that would stop me from doing it.