Hey guys.
Yesterday i had lecture about business ethics and how far can humans go with genetic technology.
I was wondering what you think of Human Genome Project. Probably all of us are aware that one day our technology will allow us not only to create things like kidneys to save many people lives but to clone whole humans and modify their genes as we like. But do you think we should play God like this? Also right now you can make plastic surgery, hair removal surgery etc, so what do you think of offering genes surgeries to public services so everybody would be able to change their skin, eyes or hair color as they want, when they want? Will that be ethical?
And finally: If it would be available would YOU boost you own kid (or yourself) with genes so he would become a better human with much higher IQ, strength etc than average people.

I am completely against changing the gender of the baby. Since males are valued more than females for Surname reasons and the cost reasons, being able to change the gender of a child will result in many more males than females out. This will be terrible for humanity.

Whatever you call God, he cannot come into such a debate on whether it is right or wrong. It is wrong for a religious person to impose his religious laws upon atheists or agnostics. If atheists are doing wrong, they will be judged by the Creator (should one exist).

I agree to allowing modifications of the human (with a few exceptions such as gender and the capabilities of a sports person) because it doesn't harm anyone whatsoever. If they want it and are willing to pay for it, they should be allowed it.

I would, however, not boost my own kid. If they want to be changed, they can do it when they're older. It would be immoral of me to change another person's life around without their consent. I don't really want to change myself right now, especially since I'm still quite young. But, I may decide on doing so if it does become available.

In my opinion i think that it is not playing god( then again i'm an athiest) so I belive that it okay to research newer technoliges in this area to help people that are alive. But when it comes to altering what your childs IQ would be or making sure they looked a certian way i find that to be unethical because that is who they are so to change that in my opinion would be wrong to do.

I think we are GODS, let us see how far we can hack ourselves down and create the perfect human!

(Wow, how interesting... I just did a presentation/lesson about the HUman Genome Project this morning! )

Quote by YunsungProbably all of us are aware that one day our technology will allow us not only to create things like kidneys to save many people lives but to clone whole humans and modify their genes as we like.

Actually, while it IS possible to clone humans, there are laws against that.

Quote: But do you think we should play God like this? Also right now you can make plastic surgery, hair removal surgery etc, so what do you think of offering genes surgeries to public services so everybody would be able to change their skin, eyes or hair color as they want, when they want? Will that be ethical?

No, I do not think that the HUman Genome Project should be used to play God. However, I believe that if it is used responsibly then it can be an asset to modern science. It would be beneficial to all if scientists were able to figure out what genes carry certain genetic disorders. It would also be beneficial because once a person is diagnosed with a certain disease, doctors/scientists will be able to work on treatment for that person based on their genetic make-up, which would cut down on costs for medicines/treatments that don't work and also radiation treatments for certain cancers. I believe that gene modification should NOT be allowed for the use of cosmetic reasons.

Actually, the last part of your statement is somewhat inaccurate. People would not be able to change their genetic make-up WHENEVER they wanted because the modified gene is usually inserted into an ovum... and it is the offspring that exhibit the traits. In an adult human there is no way at the moment for the modified gene to get to every cell throughout the body, unless you genetically engineer a virus to transmit it.

Quote: And finally: If it would be available would YOU boost you own kid (or yourself) with genes so he would become a better human with much higher IQ, strength etc than average people.

I would never boost my own kid because then it wouldn't really be my own offspring... it'd be like a toy that I could mold and shape to my liking. I like the uncertainty that comes with having children... Who will it look like? The only thing I might change if given the chance is if my child were going to be born with a genetic disease or some other dehabilitating disorder.

The idea of creating humans or cloning humans scares me. It'll totally erase the joys of pregnancy and the surprises of it, as fireflywishes said. If you can manufacture a baby, then the whole world would be the same; there would be no individuality left.

I more or less worried about breakthroughs in genetics being patented. May sound sick or twisted, but someone (or rather, some legal entity) could own the blueprints for the future's "designer" children - thus reducing the life of a human to several hundred-thousand dollars and a certificate of authenticity. *shudders*

1. Yes, if any god(s) existed I doubt they would mind people becoming smart (unless they are anti-intelligence god(s) in which case we ignore them).
2. Death to society caring about physical appearance, or maybe strengthening it. I'd hope for the former.
3. Yes, I can't see how giving people the ability to change their physical appearance would be non-ethical. Giving people the right and ability to change their physical appearance is ethical too.
4. I would of course boost my IQ and if I somehow got a child (wait, I'm 14 0_o ) I would also boost his/her IQ. I don't see why not to. Fireflywishes had said it takes away randomness, but if the child gets to be intelligent who cares if it takes away intelligence--it also will take anxiety awraisingm you rasing the child and the child in school/work. Fluxinator had said that you would be changing their life around, don't you do that by trying to raise your child? Increasing a child's intelligence would just be a more effective way of well, making them smart. =D

Quote by alexjohnc3Fireflywishes had said it takes away randomness, but if the child gets to be intelligent who cares if it takes away intelligence--it also will take anxiety awraisingm you rasing the child and the child in school/work.

Not to sound all distopian, but if everyone had that same mind-set and EVERYONE made their children more intelligent, it would spell a collapse in the economy... in society in general. Who would be left to do the "grunt work". If you had a high intelligence, would you really want to spend your life as a janitor making minimum wages? This leads us to the worst case scenario, a la Brave New World where humans are genetically modified for certain jobs/social classes.

that are more losses than profit

Quote by fireflywishesActually, the last part of your statement is somewhat inaccurate. People would not be able to change their genetic make-up WHENEVER they wanted because the modified gene is usually inserted into an ovum... and it is the offspring that exhibit the traits. In an adult human there is no way at the moment for the modified gene to get to every cell throughout the body, unless you genetically engineer a virus to transmit it.

lol.... sorta remind me of Gundam SeeD... should we ever get modified... will we have side-effects?(gundam seed suggested that modified ppl have problems with child births....)...lol

so in our case... will the modification genes have any side-effects...?
if no... then i dun really see why it is wrong...
but fireflywishes shows another point again...

there must a balance of intelligence in the world... no ppl can be too smart...or else war will occur... still... if all smart ppl are content with wat they have... this sideeffect may not apply at all...:)

making my point clear: there are too many factors that may change the desired future in human genetic modification..... i intend to observe more

great achievement for molecular biologist.

but, can they answer "what is life?"

merged: 03-19-2006 ~ 09:00pm
great achievement for molecular biologist.

but, can they answer "what is life?"

What we should remember is that even now with organ transplants, artificial organs and limbs, people are still dying and going around whithout all these possibilities to make them physically better and live longer. How many people have you seen whithout a limb when they could have had one installed? How many of the world's top atheletes are top atheletes because of artificial limbs? The technology is there, theoretically it is piossible to create the first artifical superhuman, but it will take a loooong time to perfect the process. Sure, the customization of genes is possible in the near future, but how many years before you can go to your local clinic and say: "extra intelligence, hold the sickness"?

Even with the first artificial limb in the post middle ages the church cried out sacriledge because man attempted to better God's creation.

The human body is an amazing complex, call it a machine if you could look at it like that for a minute. How many machines can physically repair themselves? And I don't mean software - thats just the brains - how long before the dented car can undent itself?

Human technology and science and medicine still have an extremly long way to go before it can succesfully supplant that which is the human body.

Take a look at cloning. It's there, its been done - but have they cloned a human yet? I'm not denying that one day politicians will clone soldiers or themselves, but by then it will be a lot furhter into the future and by then I believe human morals and law will be able to take care of it.

Quote by fireflywishesNot to sound all distopian, but if everyone had that same mind-set and EVERYONE made their children more intelligent, it would spell a collapse in the economy... in society in general. Who would be left to do the "grunt work". If you had a high intelligence, would you really want to spend your life as a janitor making minimum wages? This leads us to the worst case scenario, a la Brave New World where humans are genetically modified for certain jobs/social classes.

That's funny, I've actually talked about something almost exactly like this before with one of my friends. If humans could increase their intellect a large amount, what makes you think these "super intelligent" humans wouldn't be able to make extremely complex machines to do such jobs? And I doubt these "super intelligent" humans would have a need for social classes.

Increasing one intelligence would imply that we have a specific gene (or a number of them) that are linked with intelligence. But i believe practically all the human genome has something to do with the brain development. For example, testosterone and estrogenes (the sexual hormones for male and female respectively) play an active role in the maturation of certain brain areas.

Therefore, to boost one's intelligence up, you'd have to modify every single gene, make him live in a stimulating environment (where his brain areas will need to function at a precise time to mature correctly), and maybe he could be more intelligent than he would have been if you had changed nothing. There is absolutely no way to "increase" intelligence by modifying genes, because the simple concept of intelligence is way to complicated for humans to understand.

Also, we have to beware of the "crime-gene problem" (some geneticians that said a gene was responsible for being a criminal), trying to sum up a complex problem in a too simple answer thanks to the progress of science.

As science advances it will be possible to genetically modify a human according to specifications intended. However the reasons behind the modification may or may not be ethical. People with corrupt agendas will go to extremes playing God given the opportunity.

do they recognized which noble characters gene such caring,loving,justice,merciful,etc. than junk/disease descent gens?
I dont think so.

Even though they can create human with super power mind, how about He...is very EVIl wants to destroy everything to create their own Utopia..
It only we just create super Monster thanks to human genom projrct

Anjhurin:
int genes:
something which make you have more memory space?
an induction to have compatibility to chemicals to make us concentrate more?

although having these boosts wont make us smart naturally as it involves other factors...
But certainly i think that to be smart...we need to have these....

risingcresent:
caring, loving, justice...and all those other crap human perspective stuff... i dont think that we can really find those... we need something that will attribute to it... like a removal of partially the genes which makes ppl attracted to sex so much....(i think sexual attributes causes too much problems in the world and should be lowered)

also... the creation of a being who think that.... i think will be the fault of the ppl who teaches him.... because they didnt guide him well enough....
unless you are thinking about ppl being born evil(sinful) or watever crap human perspective there are...
I think human are born and have feelings and thoughts because of the main attributes we need to survive like the need for food, mate, air and pain...

thats why whatever superior creation always mother of new megadiversity mal- sickness

I believe that the primary objective of the Human Genome Project was to map out the human DNA sequence so that it can become possible to find the causes of disease such as Parkinsons, Alzhiemers (sp?) and cancer which we do not fully understand and have no effective cures for.

Whether gene manipulation will be allowed in future generations, really depends on society's views. The first obvious step is gene manipulation to remove possibilities of hereditary diseases or conditions in our children (heart disease, cancer, short-sightedness etc). I'm sure every single parent in the world would want their child to be safe from as many diseases as possible. Eventually people will consider gene manipulation for cosmetic reasons because, in the end, we humans are very shallow beings. Who wouldn't want their child to be healthy, beautiful and intelligent?

The main problems with gene manipulation is that it will undoubtably be expensive and you will probably see an ever-widening gap between those born with gene manipulation and those whose parents could not afford such a luxury. There will probably be some form of anti-discrimination law to protect the "Naturals" but no doubt big companies will find a way around these laws to make sure they employ only the "best and brightest". In conclusion, I think the Human Genome project is a step in the right direction in terms of medical advances, but I could see how it may spawn a lot more problems in the future.

If you are interested in gene manipulation in society, then check out the film Gattaca. It's an excellent movie that deals with how gene manipulation could affect people in the future.

Cloning?... Well that takes the fun part out of procreating.

dont they have more passions ?

I believe the human genome project will over seemingly endless possibilities for the survival of human race. Especially if somewhere in the near future there will be a very dealy disease that more than capable to wipe out the entire human race. Not to mention that there are many disease that can't be prevented to happen because it's in your genes

But then again we are dealing with the make up of our very own structure. The ethics will always there to control and limit the activity of gene manipulation. But this is a really difficult thing to do, sometimes the ethicality can be so blur that is hard to dicide whether it ethical or not.

But overall I guess human genome project should be beneficial and should go on

I will just say two extremely simple things:
1. People have the power to accept themselves as they are. They just need to take that power on their hands and on their hearts.
2. Don't play with fire or you might be burnt.

greetings.
PS: I would not boost mi child's IQ. I prefer to know that he excels among humans naturally, without "cheating".