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Ethics of the Genetic Engineering of Humans

[This is a small essay I wrote last semester in my Bioethics class. I just recently dug it up and decided to write it up for fun. Enjoy.]

Advancement in modern technology brings a wave of ethically debatable topics to the public's attention. Among others, genetic manipulation and eugenics are taking this spotlight and it is clear that the topic is subject to deep ethical analysis. Intense social class segregation and the transformation of human life into a business are all by products of eugenics.

In a possible not-so-distant future, eugenics will be widely available and will grow to become a common practice among us. When a life altering procedure becomes open to the public, people in positions of power will search for the best way to make a profit off the masses and bring wealth to their pockets. This means that the possible genetic engineering of a human child would not be free; we would be fueling large eugenics corporations. The rise of eugenic science will lead to yet another way for unemployment rates to rise and economies to drop while a select few carry most of the population's wealth. Child birth has always been a natural process in which a baby is born into the world based on the genes of his or her parents (be that good or bad genes). Corporations and political entities could very easily take control and monopolize the technology and shape it to fit their needs and political agendas. After all, you need to have a perfect body right? This simple question leads us to the second ethical concern: How do we define perfection and to whom will we give the responsibility to decide this?

As stated above, if eugenics becomes a widely available technology, it is nearly certain that powerful entities will control its use. "With great power, comes great responsibility" (A Spiderman quote, I think). In shaping genetic engineering to their liking, corporations will create a model for the ideal human being – the perfect person (Opening any history book and researching World War II will reveal similar motives). Trends will begin to emerge and by simply altering the public's view on perfection, people will be paying more to remove the "less popular genes". This raises the question that if we, as a society, are moving towards attaining perfection, what will become of the aspects of humans that make us unique and differentiate us from one another? The drive for perfection would change the ideology of the people by bringing them to a genetically equal equator. Of course, as explained above, you can't be perfect if you don't have the money. This raises the final ethical concern towards eugenics: The creation and extreme segregation of genetically defined social classes.

Because not every family in the social hierarchy has sufficient funds to give birth to the legendary "perfect person", the spectrum of social classes will shift and become genetically biased. There will be a literal rip in the fabric of human equality, which could easily be lead to excessive violence. By creating genetic social classes, we would be infusing monetary social classes with other classes (skin color, for example), thereby bringing two groups of "haters" (like the KKK) together hating the same people. This would lead to genetically inferior individuals experiencing intense segregation and abuse.

All three concerns stated above are all by-products of the shift of eugenics to become a common practice. A vicious circle would emerge and monetary gain would prevail over the wellbeing of a population. The "slippery slope" is very real and can be avoided if we simply walk the other way.