Idea of progress : Is genetic engineering ethically acceptable ?

Idea of progress

I am going to talk about the notion « idea of progress ». First of all, progress is a positive or not breakthrough in a field, it’s a movement forward especially towards a place or an objective. The idea of progress is the idea that different advances, improvements, breakthroughs can improve human condition and make our lives better. Some of the numerous advances that happen each year are questionnable and notably in the genetic field.

The question I will try to answer is : Is genetic engineering ethically acceptable ?

Developement :

Genetic engineering is the deliberate modification of one’s characteristics by manipulating its genetic material.

In class we’ve seen some techniques that are implying a dna modification and I will try to summarize for each technique the advantages and the ethical questions that are raised by the technique.

The first one is the Car-T cell treatment. It is known as being the first type of gene therapy to hit the US market. It is also the first treatment that genetically engineers patient’s own blood cells into an army of assassins to seek and destroy childhood leukemia.

This type of therapy is a revolution in its field. Indeed, the ability of reprogramming a patient’s own cells to attack a deadly cancer was only written in science-fiction stories and today it is possible.

The biggest advantage here is clear : it can save lives that weren’t solvable. (people that were about to die from an important disease).

There is a few problems with this technique. First of all, it is expected to cost hundreds of thousands dollars so only rich people can access it. There is also exhausting side effects that can be even life-threatening. Is it worth it to litteraly modify someone if one’s not gonna survive afterwards ?

The 2nd one is the growth of sheep embryos containing human cells.

Indeed, scientists have successfully grown sheep embryos containing about one human cell in 10,000. The idea with this is to tackle the shortage of organs that leaves lot of patients to die waiting for an organ. Human-type organs grown inside sheeps would allow to increase dramatically the supply of organs while reducing the risk of rejection, as the transplanted organ would be partly made of the patient’s own cells.

The research raises multiple issues : - is it ethically acceptable to use animals to increase or supply of organs ? – how much suffering will it cost ?(animal cruelty) – how about the environmental cost of farming such animals ? How humans are the chimeras likely to become ?

Conclusion :

Use of the following terms for the conclusion

- Cure disease : ethical

- Use animal : not ethical

- Change nature : not ethical

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