Katelyn's+Essay

**Rough Draft**

First and foremost I am religious, and being religious I believe that God gave each and every one of us a brain. In this new time of scientific discovery, the new battle is the contreversy of it all. Is it right? Is genetic engineering and the idea of producing "Designer Babies" morally right. Is cloning right? Whether it be animals for food or therapeautic cloning for regeneration? Where do you draw the line? Then the same with stem cells. Embryonic research and therapeautic cloning are very contreversial, but why not seize the power? If we can do it why shouldn't we?

I believe that genetic engineering is an excellent discovery. I believe that creating "Designer Babies" based soley on cosmetic purposes is wrong, however if we have the possibility to eliminate Leukemia, Heart Disease, Parkinsons, ALS, and other diseases for our children it would be wonderful. Personally having to go through epilepsy, I would never want to watch my child suffer with epilepsy, let alone suffer at all.

Cloning is a huge advancement in the scientific community. As far as animal cloning goes, it s an amazing discovery that seems to help the farming industry, however I believe that more efforts should be put into therapeautic cloning. With therapeautic cloning scientists could find cures to many diseases including, diabetes, epilepsy (?), and even regenerate spinal cells for quadrapalegics and parapalegics. The idea that scientists and medical professionals might be able to cure these patients is amazing!

How this is done would be through therapeautic cloning. In therapeautic cloning a stem cell is taken, and the nucleus of the cell is transferred out. Then another nucleus is transferred in. I believe tha this is perfectly ok. With embryonic research an egg is removed from a woman and the same nuclear transfer occurrs. Many religious officials do not agree with embryonic research because they believe that it has the potential for life, however I disagree. I believe that people on this earth have more legal rights than an embryo. If it was a fetus however, I probably would feel different, but it is not.

So to answer Professor Lee Silver's question, I believe that we should "seize the power" but understanding that there has to be some boundaries.


 * Final Draft**

Should we seize the power? Seize the power and use the ability to create "Designer Babies" and have genetically modified foods. Is it morally right to clone animals for the farming industry? Is it morally right to use embryonic stem cells for research, when the embryo has the potential for life. Is it morally right to use adult stem cells, or do we just think that because it seems like the lesser of two evils between Embryonic and Adult stem cell research?

First and foremost I am religious, and being religious I believe that God gave each and every one of us a brain. With that brain comes intelligence and the ability to choose what happens in our lifetime. Whether or not we choose to explore and experiment, or do nothing is up to us.

Genetic engineering is an excellent discovery. The idea that scientists can genetically engineer the genes from insects into papaya plants so that the fruit will be resistant to certain viruses like the ring spot virus, is amazing. It is not just the papaya though; scientists have also been able to alter other foods such as strawberries being resistant to the cold and even bulls that are extremely massive and muscular for meat production. What the most interesting thing is the idea that in the very near future scientists will be able to genetically engineer humans. Even before birth, scientists will be able to identify genes that are either unwanted or wanted. They will be able to remove any risk factors of diseases that cause our society grief today. These include any childhood diseases, leukemia, heart disease, any and all forms of cancer, epilepsy, and many other diseases that have brought suffering and could still bring suffering to loved ones. If we could prevent this, why wouldn't we? To seize the power is one thing and one motive. However to eliminate suffering would be my number one reason for research in genetic engineering. Having experience with something like epilepsy, I would never want any of my loved ones to have to go through what I have gone through, let alone something worse. However there is a very big difference between using genetic engineering for medical purposes and cosmetic purposes. I believe that using genetic engineering for cosmetic purposes is wrong. Leave what your child will look like to chance. Morally I just believe that it is wrong.

Cloning is another advancement in the scientific community. The ability to clone animals has made a very large impact on the farming industry. While that is great, the money and time spent on animal cloning could be better put to use in therapeutic cloning. With therapeutic cloning regeneration is possible for serious illnesses and injuries. In doing this I do not believe that we are “playing God” but that we are using the intelligence that God gave us to thrive on this earth.

I believe the same for stem cell research. Whether it be embryonic or adult stem cells I see no difference. It is understandable that some believe that an embryo is a human being because it has the potential for life, and therefore embryonic research is murder, however that people deserve treatment over a clump of cells, as embryos have been referred to. I am extremely in favor for adult stem cells because they are not as controversial as embryonic stem cells and because they will help regenerate cells and hopefully in the future cure these diseases.

As far as seizing the power goes I believe we should, but with caution.

**Audio File**

media type="file" key="for_professor_lee_silver_kaylenr_bioethics.mp3"