Ryan's+Essay


 * TEXT OF ESSAY**

The potential that GMO’s, genetic engineering, and stem cell research have are astronomical. We could cure diseases, end world hunger, and allow the paralyzed to walk and deaf to hear; the modern day Jesus. However, the cliché “playing God,” aside, human kind is still arrogant, insignificant, and in the long term, rather unintelligible; we may not be the people to change the very way that every living organism works. We could go for it all – but we might lose everything. It is difficult to generalize an entire philosophy around three very different, loosely connected, subjects – but allow me to try.

Notoriously, almost without exception, science and scientists have failed when they first attempt to bridge the gap into an unknown territory. Maybe a vaccine ended up being fatal, or a leak from a plant polluted the ground water; Ethinium Bromide once used by dentists to turn plaque red, ended up being a carcinogen. Mark my words, as we start messing with the genetics of a person, or major characteristics of plants, mistakes will made, and mistakes that will last generations. Right now we struggle to contain and improve on the carbon fingerprints of our predecessors and the drastic effects our species has had on ecosystems around the world. We are like dogs chasing their wagging tail.

Mark my words, the next the “Global Warming” will be humans frantically trying to pick up the pieces of failed GMO’s that have reproduced and become out of control.

What if corn, our ever farmed crop, were to have been engineered to become bigger and juicier; yum! But what if by being produced faster, it had to compensate by producing a slightly toxic chemical within itself. Ten or so years later scientists say “oops” and every continent and every corn farmer in the world has some type of contamination. People wouldn’t know which seeds were good; third world countries would cling to, and hide, their seed because they did not understand; and every corn farmer in the world has to sit and watch the grass grow… rather than stalks of corn. First world countries would find a way to manage, but impoverished areas would be impossible to handle, and just like poisonous Dora the Explorer Dolls coming from China, there will occasionally be “corn scares” in the US.

We might get it down after a few years, but there are no undoing the mistakes already made. We will once again be chasing our tails and trying desperately to clean up the mess we made.

No matter how smart we humans think we are, we will always be beaten by the ever changing Mother Nature. Just like we thought we beat tuberculosis, it managed to become resistant to many of our drugs, and come back in full force. Year in and year out, pesticides are forced to become stronger to fend off the newer elite bugs. When we put BT pesticides right into the DNA of corn, we kill all the bugs except those unaffected by the new bit of human engineering. Now those few bugs have entire fields all to themselves to eat and reproduce. Sooner or later a new, better pest, renders years of research useless. What’s the solution? – becoming more dependent on Monsanto to come out with an even newer type of corn… sounds strikingly similar to a coke addict trying to get a high just to get back to normal. And eventually we will have used up all our resources and created the worlds most adapt, unstoppable bug around; we continue to chase our tails.

There are some advantages to GMO’s. Rice is being made to have more vitamins and minerals so that the impoverished in Asia can eat the same way but can maintain a more healthy diet. There is still a risk because we cannot know all the side effects but it might be worth it if the gain is as great as that. So for me, it is only worth taking the risk if there has been extensive research done first and if there is a nutritional value. Pesticides genetically added in, or unnecessary attributes manufactured into our food, are not worth the risk.

Genetic engineering on people, for me, is extremely straight forward. I do not believe we should do it. We can cure leukemia but identifying it, and by using in vitro fertilization we can choose sperm or egg cells that do not have the genes for leukemia. If everyone did it, then it would be erased off the face of the earth. The idea of going in and changing the genes of a person to cure leukemia sounds great until you think about it. Firstly, it would be so much easier to just not choose that cell in the beginning, and secondly it is highly unpractical. By the time doctors have learned that the baby has the disease it is too late to change the makeup of the DNA in all the cells. My last point is that in order to “cure” those babies, a ton of experiments have to be done in order to figure out how to do it. I can guarantee that in the name of science and finding a cure, babies and fetuses will die in the droves. There are easier ways to solve the problems of genetic disorders that require even less knowledge… and that do not kill anyone. I would prefer genetic selection over genetic manipulation, in terms of health.

As far as genetically modifying people for desirable genes, as you could expect, I’m more against that than every bizarre GMO combined. Because we are imperfect people, we cannot know or create perfection. Our prejudices will stand out, and the diversity among people will decline. There are unique people in the world that do not fit the mold of most people’s desirable person, and yet they are still happy and they still find their niche. I could not imagine a smiling, 28 year old, newly wed couple, walking into a laboratory saying we want our child to grow up to want to study the skin of dead bodies of ancestral primates in order to identify their job and the type of life they used to live (that is a job actually). Every blue-eyed, blond jock and cheerleader would undo all that we’ve striven for. We strive to get rid of prejudice, to tolerate people, and we must continue too – not design a child based on what is “in.” We do not know perfection, and by trying to attain it by blocking out what we see as imperfection, we will only intensify our lack of understanding.

Lastly, stem cell research. Because I do not believe that any person should be used or taken advantage of, especially those without any ability to defend or explain themselves, I believe it would be the largest violation of rights in the United States. People often say it is a clump of cells but do not take the time to think of what that clump of cells actually are. They are human cells. They are the beginnings of a person. Although you cannot see the person’s reason or the person’s eyes they will be there. Every life no matter how small is worth more than an organ or a nerve.

Lots of people are in pain or have problems. It is easy to see the hurt with someone who cannot move from the chest down. It is easy to sympathize with a man or women in a hospital waiting for an organ. But just because we cannot see what could have been, does not make it any less important, or its loss, any less of a travesty. Asking whether those fetuses should be tested on or burnt is like asking whether a person should thrown in a furnace or pumped full of chemicals to see what will happen. Researching on a fetus will only lead to further research. The problem lies in the fact that there are so many left over. That is where the breakdown is occurring.

I am skeptical of the advancement in bio technology. Certain GMO’s can help the overall nutrition of undernourished nations but can also bring forth new problems that will last generations. It will make farmers even more dependent on greedy corporations and create highly resistant pests. Working on humans, like your upgrading a computer, is highly uncalled for and unnecessary. We can never know what perfection is. People will become similar, and certain jobs will lack workers while others will have excess. Through generations society has come to accept a broader group of people. By changing who we are, we are taking a step back. Rather than learning to tolerate differences, we change to appease others. And finally, we must learn that all life is sacred and that killing one person, know matter how small, is not a solution. What we cannot see, many times, is as equally as important as what we can.

**Audio File**

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