Gene Manipulation Essay -- essays research papers fc

Throughout time, man has always questioned science. Man has been curious about life, space, our bodies, and our existence. Man has gone as far as to the moon, and cloning. Everyday there are new developments being researched. Along with these developments come the people’s opinion. Many people question the positive outcomes and negative outcomes of procedures such as gene manipulation, cloning, in vitro fertilization and fetal tissue implants. To this day, scientists are researching and developing ways to â€Å"design† their children by selecting their sex, height, intelligence, and color of eyes. People question the morality of gene manipulation. Is it right to â€Å"design† our children? What are the consequences? The practice of gene manipulation is seen as Frankenstein-ish, but it is solely to benefit all humans with longer and healthier lives.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gene manipulation is able to screen disorders of the fetus, prevent diseases from occurring to the following generations and allows parents to design their children. Prenatal testing is a very common procedure that is done . Nine out of ten pregnant women submit to some type of prenatal screening. (Golden) Dominant disorders such as Down Syndrome, which is a form of retardation, can be detected from a fetus. Since 1996, gene therapy has been the cure for patients suffering from a genetic disease. This is done by slipping a healthy gene in the cells of one organ of the patient. (Begley) Parents of this fetus can then decide on the procedures that will be done on their baby to cure him/her. Not only will the parents of the baby prepare for the surgeries but they can prepare themselves emotionally. This is helpful because during labor the parents will not be in shock when told that their child has complications. Older pregnant women who usually have more complications during pregnancy benefit from genetic screening. Doctors usually recommend â€Å"more invasive procedures† in which actual fetal cells are collected from the womb’s amniotic fluid or placenta . (Golden) Receiving the results from the tests, she can determine whether it is safe for her to continue with the pregnancy, especially since some tests provide accuracy as high as ninety-nine percent. (Golden) Unfortunately, not all test results come out positive. Approximately ninety-five percent of couples who receive â€Å"bad† news from genetic scr... ...nsequences, especially because of genetic screening. Many people may not be prepared to know nor prepared to want to know about the negative results of the tests. Should we then be ignorant about the situation and pretend not to know? Ignorance is not bliss. The more we know about curing people, the closer we get to improving our society. It may not happen now, but it will real soon. Works Cited Begley, Sharon. â€Å"Designer Babies.† Time Magazine 9 Nov 1998 Frantz, Elizabeth. â€Å"The Hunt for the Ultimate Cure.† Time Magazine 11 Jan 1999 Golden, Frederic. â€Å"Good Eggs, Bad Eggs.† Time Magazine 11 Jan 1999 Grunewald, Peter. â€Å"Genetic Engineering and Medicine.† Liebenzell: Arbeitskreis   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Furernahrungs forschung 1994. Joyce, Christopher. â€Å"Special Delivery†. USA Weekend 14-16 May 1999 Kalb, Claudia. â€Å"Our Quest to Be Perfect†. Newsweek 9 Aug 1999 Lemonick, Michael. â€Å"Designer Babies† Time Magazine 1999 â€Å"Prenatal Care† http:w-cpc.org./pregnancy/testing.html. Toriello, Helga, Ph.D. â€Å"It Happened Once-Will It Happen Again?† A Heartbreaking   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Choice Fall 1994 Wright, Robert. â€Å"Who Gets The Good Genes?† Time Magazine 11 Jan 1999