Manipulation of the human genome threatens diversity, which is the key to thriving life forms. The main concern here is that potential future oppressed societies may manipulate CRISPR for their own prejudiced movements. In the words of Dalai Lama, “we need to consider whether this is being done out of positive intention or on the basis of a particular society’s prejudices at a particular time” (66). In the future, highly authoritative governments may take over their society through dictatorship. This could lead to movements that make it so every individual in society has to look the same. This is ethically wrong and outside of humanities moral standards. An event this dangerous can be traced back to the manipulation of CRISPR and this goes to show how dangerous CRISPR is.
Some may say that by avoiding the utilization of CRISPR, humanity is essentially letting death happen. Humanity is being a bystander by letting diseases from mosquitos and ticks kill so many people. It’s like humanity has the chance to play hero and save so many lives, but is instead not taking the opportunity and watching these diseases kill people. Some may say that this is the chance to prevent diseases from taking more lives and that by not doing so is ethically wrong as humanity is just watching lives wither away due to these diseases.
How should we feel about genetic technology that can alter the biosphere in whatever way we please (The Week 13)? At first glance, this sounds amazing, it brings out the power lust in humanity. Humanity can play God now. But is that really a good thing in the long run? Humanity should be wary and more concerned with this technology rather than being too excited because of its unknowns. Right now, we’re living in nature, which is God’s will (The Week 13). Playing God and making the world into our own custom Disneyland would strip our humanity away from us, causing massive power lust (The Week 13). This is not a love for nature, rather a manipulation of natural processes to benefit our own desires. This is against God’s will and that’s ethically wrong. Playing God is ethically wrong. Having this much power and manipulating it to benefit us is ethically wrong. Normally, I would think genetic modification should have limits, but who decides this? Do the scientists themselves control the limitation of this technology or do the people above them do? Most importantly, do we trust whoever the hands are behind this technology? The concept itself is so dangerous and can go wrong in so many ways. That’s why, rather than having limits on the technology, we shouldn’t have it at all. This applies to our country, but not to others. Not every country is going to play by these philosophies and if that ever happens, then we should utilize CRISPR with serving its single purpose to defend ourselves. Until then, studies toward that should be the only focus on mind, not manipulating it to benefit our own desires. If the Maine EPA came to Biddeford and wanted to eliminate the female deer tick, I would protest this action for the same reasons I would for genetically modifying mosquitos (The Week 13). It’s unethical to wipe a population out. Yes, of course we kill bugs such as mosquitos and ticks when they’re on us, but that is nowhere near the magnitude of wiping a whole population out. This is playing God. We also don’t know the long term effects of genetic modification. We don’t know the possible dangers lurking in the long run by doing this. To add on to more unknowns, we don’t know how it will effect certain ecosystems and food chains as ticks and mosquitos are major food sources of many species. There’s literally so many ways this can all go wrong and I don’t think playing God and superhero is worth the risks of huge negative impacts on the world all because of our selfish desires toward individual benefit.
So, I’m sure all of us know now what exactly CRISPR is and what can be done with it after last class. If not, or if there’s any confusion still based on the topic, click here to find out more about what exactly CRISPR is. So, where should I even start with all of this? I’ve known about CRISPR since my sophomore year in high school as I learned about it in my “intro to biology honors” class. Ever since then, I’ve still maintained the same opinion I’ve always kept with this topic. It’s too dangerous. We’re playing with things that are above what we would deem the level of mankind. I can go on a forever rant about this topic, but I’ll try to keep it more condensed here. It’s simply too powerful to be put in the hands of humanity. Yes, humanity has achieved more than any other species in the world, but we’re playing God here, and coming from a religious person, it just isn’t right. Humans shouldn’t be interfering with God’s plan and natural course of selection. I know it sounds messed up when it comes to ignoring the potential cure for cancer, but this just isn’t the way to go about things. With other special needs disorders such as down syndrome, not every person who has down syndrome is suffering. Plus, every parent out there should be giving their special needs kid the same amount of love they would if their kid didn’t have those special needs in the first place. We don’t even know the long term effects of CRISPR. We don’t know it’s long term effects in the medical world, we don’t know it’s long term effects with ever lasting food. There’s so much unknown to it that makes it so dangerous. People also tend to forget this topic relating to government terms. What if government oppression happens because of CRISPR? There is the solution of having it a consumer product, but this isn’t the app store. This is playing with rules above us. Choosing what you want your kid to look like is playing God, and to me, it just isn’t right. It’s stripping us of our humanity and making us forget what’s really special within us, and that’s differences. If I end up getting a counterargument on how I wouldn’t know what “loss” is, therefore I shouldn’t be speaking upon the potential cure for cancer, I do. And I don’t want it to seem like I’m happy my loss happened, because I’m not, but I will say that things happened in my life after that loss that shaped me who I am today. I met new people who’ve impacted my life and I toughened up mentally because of such certain events. My point is, everything happens for a reason. Everybody struggles and at the moment, it’s tough, but these struggles are what push us to strive in life. Where’s this raw humanity at when you can literally just get what you want? Instead of working hard to gain muscle, you can just genetically modify your genes to become jacked. Where’s the humanity in that? And if CRISPR gets in the wrong hands, specifically someone without a moral compass and high authority, then the rest of the population will for sure struggle in ways unimaginable until we’re witnessing it. We can’t play God if we’re not God. Only God should be the one choosing our fate and if humanity dictates all these actions such as modifying future children to look the way they please, are we really human anymore at that point? Sorry if this was disorganized, I tend to ramble chaotically with subjects I have a strong opinion on. I promise that it will be more clean and easy to follow come essay time, but if you read through this entire post, it should be obvious to you that I’m highly against something as powerful as this. This is also coming from a medical biology major. I just have a line I can’t cross and playing God is way past that line. Yes, there are obviously benefits to this technology, but if we commit to using this, the line will be broken due to humanity’s lust for curiosity. People will end up playing God, and it will backfire.
