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Human Genetic Enhancement: The Limitations of Morality

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Although Human genetic enhancement may seem like a limitless field, full of countless avenues of research, it is in fact rather limited due to a number of things.

Morality and Ethics

A major factor which influences the development in human genetic enhancements is morality and ethics.

As much of our culture is based on what be believe to be right and wrong, human genetic enhancement has struggled to break into social acceptance due to the murky areas of what is right and what is wrong in regards to some treatment.

An example of this could be the two types of gene modification treatment; germline and somatic.

Whilst somatic is more generally accepted due to the treatment only affecting the patient. Germline seems to bring up more moral and ethical questions, as the treatment not only affects the patient, but future generations to come, leading the question to be asked “is that the right and moral thing to do.”

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The affects that morality and ethics has on society is so vast that it cannot be fully covered in this blog.

However throughout the rest of the blog, I will attempt to demonstrate clear links on how morality and ethics limits the development of human genetic enhancement.

(note these will be short summaries to give some insight and to help spur thought on the topic)

Government

The government attempts to do what the people want. As people have mixed emotions on the topic, the government does to. This could limit the development of human genetic enhancement as it may not receive the funding ti needs to develop or laws may be put into place to outlaw the development of it.

Money

If new technology comes out, there could be the chance that it is quite costly, meaning only the upper class could afford it. This could lead to people questioning whether it is fair that only the wealthy can access it.

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Likewise it could also create scepticism, as people could think it would make the line between rich and poor broaden, thus prompting them to reject the idea of enhancing humans genetically.

Sports

How would human enhancement affect sports? What happens if some players want to ge genetically enhances while others don’t? Would this create an unlevelled playing field? Would this ruin the legitimacy of some sports? Or would there be new law put in place?

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military

How would it affect the military. If human genetic enhancement was able to create super soldiers or clones, could this lead to another world war? Could it lead to nuclear devastation? Could it lead to oppression?

The list of questions that arise surrounding human genetic enhancement are endless. Though I cannot mention all of them as it will be impossible, hopefully the examples given above can help convey the severity that moral and ethics have on the progression of human genetic modification.

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Antonio Taraborrelli



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