Idea of progress: To what extent scientific progresss help man in his quest of perfection?

« IDEA OF PROGRESS »

I'm going to define the notion « Idea of progress ». Idea of progress can be define as an improvement, a development or a change. A technical, scientific or social advance which contributes to making the world a better place. To begin this, we are going to talk about about the movie « Gattaca ». Particulary an extract : Human possibilities. Then, we discuss of « Science babies » by Aldous Huxley from the science-fiction novel called Brave New World. We will try to answer the following question : To what expect scientific progress help man in his quest of perfection ?

First of all, the human possibilities in an extract of Gattaca. He shows a future society where we can choose the gender of their children. Indeed, is a new society where people are perfect thanks to scientific progress. The scene takes place in the genetics' house. In the movie, a person who is born naturally have a bad job contrary to person who is created. That's why Antonia and Maria, who are characters in the movie, want to decide on the gender of their baby. In Gattaca, children are conceived in vitro. It's not the natural way of conceiving babies. Parents can decide if they want a boy or a girl, they can choose the physical features and they can select specific abilities for their baby. For example, if their baby like sport or musical abilities. Antonio and Maria want baby boy with blue eyes, dark hair and especially they want him to be healthy. To sum up, nothing is left to chance. Parents know beforehand what their baby will be like. We can see how progress scientifc can change the life. Thanks to that, we can create people, but it's not a good possibility because it's dangerous, that's why, we must let the nature done.

Secondly, in the novel Brave New World, Aldoux Huxley imagines a society where's humans functions are programmed before birth. He predicted the advances in biotechnology concerning artificial procreation such as cloning and in-vitro fertilisation and genetic selection. Indeed, before 1978, progress was used in medicine to save lives and cure diseases, but since, it can be adapted to create life. As in cloning and test tubes babies, this raises many moral issues.

The main concerns today following the acceleration of progress in the last few decades are ethical, social and environmental. We must bear in mind that all advances create news dangers. For example, does the new law « marriage for everyone » give us the right to create life by artificial means ? To conclude, progress can save many lives but inevitably will destroy many others.

...