“Genetic genie, first unbolted to delicacy illness, is not on our side whether we like or not “warns Leon Kass in his 1999 article, “The Genetic Genie: Danger to Humanity” Mastery of hereditary management was acquired leaving a huge gap of entry for other social evils in the field. This does not mean that no research should have been conducted towards the manipulation of genes. The question now is how far these research and innovation will open more doors and do they have the necessary measures not to let entry of social evils. Genetic coding of human beings to enhance selective parenting opens doors to knowledge of the whole genetic profile and lay structures to design our offspring. All technology advancement is accompanied by all sorts of fears and critics. This is not to say that the technological evolvement doesn’t lack or poses some sort of risks. Some of these revolutions have little or no risk at all. L eon Kass was more pessimistic and concern by the moral implications on matters of the emerging technological biomedical, advancement.
Kass work is more concerned about the competition between humans and nature. He worries that the human race may use boosting methods and alter the human nature. He appreciates the biotechnology though not for purposes that will give results beyond what nature can hold. This will be using biotechnology in the wrong way, by substituting the main human virtues to accomplish the worldly desires Kass has regularly criticized the embryo researches due it massive exploitation and destruction of innocent human life. He shows so much respect even to the human life, even at the earliest stage. This is due to his perspective that human life should not be used as a natural resource to cater for our own interests. With such respect, he thought that there was a better way to achieve the biomedical goals.
First by obtaining cells from dead Kass was a fundamental supporter for the universal ban in cloning of humans in argument that there should be an adherence to respect the morals of the society and the human dignity. This human dignity meant respecting the way people view the process of cloning. The revulsion towards cloning is the same as that the people observe for incest and cannibalism. This defines that the moral dynamics of the current world, which is based on justice and independence, matches the condition for moral way desired. We ought to act in accordance to the moral guidelines that necessitate the goodwill of living together in peace. This peace is necessitated by the love that we have for each other as human beings. Otherwise, a society that can accommodate these moral crimes gives way to manufacture of non human beings that may not posses this kind of love. Doing away with procreation will turn the human being to projects of will of other.
Project of will is dangerous as it enables people to achieve their goals, either evil or good, through the manufactured children. This will loosen the social balance of nature to regulate family ties and human dignity. The control of these two fields should not be left to the scientists to decide. It’s even unethical for the next generation to know that they are the result of other human manipulation. Kass though has also a great respect for the effort of the technical teams that are responsible for the modification of what the nature provides. These maybe through the rectification nature errors. The only area of worry is of those that think they can now outdo nature in the provision of basic human needs or even the human beings themselves. He criticized the use of reproduction technologies such as the vitro fertilization. For Kass, cloning is a natural progression out of the normal decoupling of sex and procreation, based on the first move in vitro fertilization. He warns that this should be done with a lot of care to prevent lack of lineage and biological attachment of a child to its two parents. For single parent it’s acceptable, especially in this modern era where single parenting is common.
Kass is not of the idea of genetic engineering technology research ass it exposes the society to so many dangers. The researches should not be conducted at random without consulting the whole society whether it’s ready for such achievements. Though these advancements advocate for the goodwill of disease prevention in the first place, they still expose danger in the future. The power for human beings to play the role of god is risky. That is like giving the police the power to prosecute and judge. Why would anyone prosecute someone when he/she already knows the judgment that person will receive. Poor judgment maybe made based on the police come judge interests. This too is the case, in genetic coding.
God gives us the power to cater and tame his creation, and not the power to procreate his creation. The power to control human life is of great value and only responsible medium should be left to handle it, otherwise there will be difficulty in constraining “the genie” after losing it to the wrong hands? The real issue is not only about who is conducting the exercise of cloning, but also where to get the stem cells to conduct such an exercise. Embryonic stem cells are derived from living embryos, which at the process get destroyed. Is it really morally good to destroy such embryos? It’s a big no again. The sole purpose of procreation is survival of the human race no matter the beneficial factors that can be achieved through getting the stem cells from the living embryos to create others. In the abortion debate, it becomes a matter of choices between an already living fetus and a living mother. On the debate of stem-cell research, it’s a question of choosing between a living embryo and future benefits for treating fatal human diseases and disabilities.
To make matters worse the scientists in these projects are just speculating and are not sure what disease will be cured by the advancement of research. Further research should be stopped as this like betting on the innocent life of embryos for the benefits that we are not sure of. The society is not fully aware of the genetic knowledge available, therefore, it is not in their position to know how to regulate the use of that knowledge. Take an example, access to personal information of a patient genetic profile would automatically lead to discrimination at the workplace and the insurance companies. If couples have the power to choose exactly what features their own baby should have, the dynamic structure of our society will collapse. Other people might want to clone their babies to have a special feature, making them have advantages of others in the society. Greedy and people with self interests in their mind will change the way and reasons that make people appreciate themselves, especially the poor.
Nature has a special way of balancing the whole society and all the dynamics within that society. If such things arise then, there will be no use of holding certain competitions such as beauty reagent, maybe just to see who cloned best. This will automatically disqualify the poor in the society since they won’t have the ability to clone their own children. This will widen the big gap in the society, between the poor and the rich. The ability to know and even manipulate the genetic structure of a person is not at the moment the right direction to go. The society is not prepared for something of such magnitude. The best way to solve is to find the alternative solution to solve the problems that the stem cells of embryos can solve. Otherwise, the society should first prepare a platform for the genetic engineering process, in a manner that it will not affect the society. After laying this platform, there should be no challenge holding back the advancement of genetic technology. The ability to recognize and influence person’s genes will bring about many issues, such as privacy and troubles of favoritism that cannot deal with the present society.
This mail is based on the ideas that the social evils at the moment to able the smooth flow of this process of genetic engineering. The social evils pose a great danger to advancement of this process for better welfare of the achievements of at the moment everyone should be geared towards benefiting from it but this is not the case. This is because most individual and nations are geared towards competition each individual want to be a bit ahead of the other in every field. Competition is the only drawback of this process, especially the unhealthy one. Allowing manipulation of these genes only lays a better platform for the enhancement of competition.