Eugenics

Should eugenics be practiced?

Eugenics is defined as physically removing or replacing cells in an embryo or sex cells. Modern technology and science has created a complex issue with eugenics and gene therapy. Rapid advancements in genetics and embryology, has lead society scrambling to find the morality and the consequences of eugenics. The two types of genetic intervention are modifying sex cells or body cells. Marc Lappe goes into detail about how sex cells are specifically morally wrong due to the fact that sex cell engineering affects future generations. I agree with that Marc Lappe that sex cell intervention affects the future generations, but also in body changes there are possibilities of changes in the sex cells. I think that body and sex cell changes should be treated the same due to the fact that the differences are a matter of when you are changing the genes.

The controversy of eugenics arises from the idea of altering the natural process of birth and natural selection and using embryos to experiment eugenics. People also fear that being able to change genotypes and phenotypes will lead to discrimination and abuse of the eugenics. Currently, eugenics is not perfected and experiments with animals have shown that complications do occur.

In the future, doctors and geneticists will be able to diagnose diseases early in the developmental stages and will be able to correct the disease before birth. Would you not give medicine and treatments to someone if available? It would be morally wrong to not treat a person if there was a working treatment for any reason. The argument can be made that an afflicted embryo has the same right to be treated, if possible. Eugenics does not directly affect anyone else besides the afflicted embryo and the parents. A parent has total responsibility to a child and has the ability to make decisions for the child. Therefore, a parent has the right to use genetics to help their child as they see fit. People are reminded of the...