Genetic Engineering: Yay Or Nay?

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

I'm all for it but designer babies is where I draw the line.

I challenge you to the fact that if you want genetic engineering, the things you're GMing don't necessarily want to be 'designer organisms' either. If you want to play around with genetics, then you play around with ALL genetics, not just selectively. If you draw the line at designer babies, you should be drawing the line at ALL genetic engineering, not just one particular species. The majority of human and plant genes are approximately 90% identical (or close to it). You can pull the excuse of human ethics, but you can't pull the excuse of 'genetic ethics'.

I'm all for it, BTW a few days ago I saw some documentary on NGC, it seems they've already successfully altered worms so they don't age anymore and live 5 or 6 times longer by disabling or removing the gene which causes aging, this would also be possible on humans, it would make us grow about 500 years old, also it would be permanent, it would still be in effect on the generations which come after.

Yep. It could also possibly kill us before we're 15. The genes involved in cell-aging and the deaths of organisms are usually always involved in cancer-related diseases. Knock the cell-aging gene(s) out, and you got the problem of cancer. You've raised my interest about this documentary though. Do you have the original name of it, or at least a website link to it?

We can't rule out living forever as a possibility, but it'll take a helluva long time to figure out how to do it, and all the smart people died a long time ago.

I reckon that what's not natural evolution is not right.

Clothes aren't natural.
Nor are houses, computers...internet...

I personally am all for fucking around with genetics for fun and profit - I would appreciate it more if I could have chosen my genes, though.

Technically, clothes, houses and general technology IS natural evolution - of the mind and the continual adaptation of the human race to the world around it. Except, in this case we're 'stopping' evolution from happening to *US* because we're using houses and all those techy stuff to create our own little ideal environments to live in - hence we don't need to evolve/adapt more than we need to. What's the moral to this story? An organism evolves in order to be lazy at evolving more (please don't take this as incentive to sit around and vegetate all day.)

It is certainly a very complex issue.

On one hand, the ability to engineer people to be smarter, stronger, taller, to live longer and be free of disease.

On the other, the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor: those who can afford genetic engineering become better and therefore find it easier to make even more money. The poor are just stuck in an endless cycle.

Overall, I believe it would be good BUT would require strict regulation.

The advance of technology is always controversial but nearly always has positive side effects.
Eg. The atom bomb spawned nuclear reactors.

The reason why genetic manipulation and engineering isn't so advanced is because of human ethics, which places HUGE restrictions on what it can already do. I agree with The_Healer on this. Without regulation, selfish people (as demonstrated by MaxTheReaper and probably myself) will want it for their own ego-driven gain. Biological warfare isn't a nice way to profit, and freedom to genetic engineering may result cult/terrorist groups releasing super viruses that may kill half the population of the world before a cure can be administered.

Then again, genetic manipulation such as gene therapy are shown to be very positive research areas towards curing cancer and other terminal diseases.

Hoooey, I blabber too much. I'll stop now.

 

[theklng]

fuck genetic engineering. all hail transhumanism!

 

[JaredXE]

Anything that creates a super-powered Jessica Alba is perfectly fine in my book. For that matter, I want super abilities. Go ahead and tinker with my genes.

 

[Bigeyez]

To stop diseases, yes. For vanity, no.

This. As long as it's for a purpose I'm all for it. For just fucking around and seeing what happens, not so much.

 

[Bigsmith]

For it, but there would have to be restrcitions.. otoh Rapute would have been kwl if all the people didn't go crazy.

 

[TheFacelessOne]

Well, Human Genetic Engineering is okay to me...if the subject is willing to volunteer, willing to NOT reproduce unless the modification is perfected, and is of course willing to die under complications.

 

[ZerOmega]

As this it is part of my field of studies, I'm saying []uyes[/u] for genetic engineering. Of course there are dangers and such, but no one is doing this stuff on light basis. There are tests and research and studies and all sort of security stuff to make sure that we don't produce some harmful stuff with the new products, let alone release it into the market or nature. Many people don't even realize that most stuff that can be done wouldn't usually survive without speacial treatments.
The results of creating new mutant species are not different from the old fashion selective breeding (e.g. Corn and wheat). Many people are making too much of a ruckus out of this, because they don't know what they are really talking about or what people have trying to talk to them. What people don't understand, they are afraid of.

Also when it comes to genetic engineering on humans, it tends to divide people into three groups: Those who are against it. Those who want it to happen soon rather than later. And those that don't care, because they can't afford it anyway.
We have already "cracked the human code" many years ago. Hell, We could have your genome scanned for few thousand dollars in few months. The question is: Why should we?
You think You'll get some superpowers? *snort* You'll mess with those genes and you'll get yourself a some sort of dissease and/or cancer (which is one of the reasons why it's illeagal).
The problems of the research is that it's very expensive, very difficult, very restricted and requires willing test subjects. We can't just rob babies, start opening them up and see what makes them tick!

My point is this: Don't worry your little heads with the stuff that you don't actually know of; That's my job. After we'll discover something useful, we'll let you know. Hell, I'll even draw some pictures and graphs to make it easier for you to understand.

 

[tb.]

As a fellow Med research student, I heartily agree. The media has GROSSLY vilified and twisted the actual processes and outcomes of genetic engineering. People go on about "natural" but all that is, is hiding their fear of what they don't understand. WHAT about humans is natural these days?

We already live 3 to 4 times longer than we should due to drugs and transplants and radiation therapy. But that's perfectly natural, hey. People don't understand that humans have already chosen their path and its in science. We have already started to de-evolve our immune system, we are becoming, weaker, slower and less capable of living without treatment. The only thing that we are getting stronger in is our intellectual capacity. But when petty misunderstandings and irrational fears constantly block this path we are in danger of stoping evolving altogether and eventually it will kill us all. This might sound dramatic but its the truth of evolution.

I personally believe that our future will depend on us embracing this technology, as soon as possible because waiting will be a hell of a lot worse in the long run than starting now.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

I'm all for it, BTW a few days ago I saw some documentary on NGC, it seems they've already successfully altered worms so they don't age anymore and live 5 or 6 times longer by disabling or removing the gene which causes aging, this would also be possible on humans, it would make us grow about 500 years old, also it would be permanent, it would still be in effect on the generations which come after.

Yep. It could also possibly kill us before we're 15. The genes involved in cell-aging and the deaths of organisms are usually always involved in cancer-related diseases. Knock the cell-aging gene(s) out, and you got the problem of cancer. You've raised my interest about this documentary though. Do you have the original name of it, or at least a website link to it?

We can't rule out living forever as a possibility, but it'll take a helluva long time to figure out how to do it, and all the smart people died a long time ago.

I don't know the name of the documentary, it was somewhere during last week, in one of the documentaries during Space Week, on the dutch version of NGC, something about searching for a new planet... Anyway I'll try to find the name.

 

[ZerOmega]

I don't know the name of the documentary, it was somewhere during last week, in one of the documentaries during Space Week, on the dutch version of NGC, something about searching for a new planet... Anyway I'll try to find the name.

Better yet, why don't you to find an article of this research from one of the respected science magazines.

Don't believe everything they say in TV, my friend. They don't always tell enough and sometimes they tell way too much.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

I don't know the name of the documentary, it was somewhere during last week, in one of the documentaries during Space Week, on the dutch version of NGC, something about searching for a new planet... Anyway I'll try to find the name.

Better yet, why don't you to find an article of this research from one of the respected science magazines.

Don't believe everything they say in TV, my friend. They don't always tell enough and sometimes they tell way too much.

You mean something like this?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/mar/13/genetics.medicalresearch

I'll try finding some more...

 

[teutonicman]

Yay! We use our minds to help us evolve.

 

[ZerOmega]

You mean something like this?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/mar/13/genetics.medicalresearch

I'll try finding some more...

Yes, exactly something like this. Thank you.

 

[Ninja Tank]

I agree with it. I want my Griffons damn it!

yes killer gfriffons to rule the world (evil laugh)

 

[Dusty Donuts]

Soon... Soon you will make babies the same way that you make characters in The Sims. It's depressing and horrible, so I'm very much against it.

At least I know that I wouldn't want to be what someone else made me into.

--Xvito, keeping it excellent.

Why? A child has no choice in the genes they receive regardless of what happens. You are what someone else made you into.

My parents didn't pick me from a list.

That's just what they wanted you to believe, you're actually adopted.

NOOOOOOOOOO!

Soon... Soon you will make babies the same way that you make characters in The Sims. It's depressing and horrible, so I'm very much against it.

At least I know that I wouldn't want to be what someone else made me into.

--Xvito, keeping it excellent.

Why? A child has no choice in the genes they receive regardless of what happens. You are what someone else made you into.

My parents didn't pick me from a list.

--Xvito, keeping it excellent.

But they made you into the person you are today. Do you not think that if you had been born to two poor African people, your life would have been different?

What does that have to do with my genes...? I would probably have been different, but my choices would still have been left up to me.

Anyways, to answer your previous question a bit more elaborately. I don't have any control over my genes, true. But, neither does anyone else!

--Xvito, keeping it excellent.

Nothing to do with your genes. It's to do with who you are. You would not make the same choices in life if you'd had a different upbringing. You can't deny that.

What would be wrong with people having control over your genes? A gene is a gene, regardless of how it got there. If you'd been naturally born being incredibly handsome and smart (like me), it wouldn't be different to you being selected to be handsome and smart.

Well, i've actually heard a news article where parents were allowed to pick generally what they wanted their children to look like; if i had had that done to me, i woulda been pretty off the tap.(annoyed)

I reckon that what's not natural evolution is not right.

Clothes aren't natural.
Nor are houses, computers...internet...

I personally am all for fucking around with genetics for fun and profit - I would appreciate it more if I could have chosen my genes, though.

Well, if we didn't have houses computers internets, we wouldn't have known and we wouldn't have worried. Besides, now that we have all that, we have to worry about bills, money (although that was a worry anyway), enviromental problems, etc. etc. etc.
Sure, i'm using the internet now, and i would be rather sore if someone took it away from me, but if i never knew about internet, i wouldn't be angry because i wouldn't know what it did.

 

[Daveman]

Well, if we didn't have houses computers internets, we wouldn't have known and we wouldn't have worried. Besides, now that we have all that, we have to worry about bills, money (although that was a worry anyway), enviromental problems, etc. etc. etc.
Sure, i'm using the internet now, and i would be rather sore if someone took it away from me, but if i never knew about internet, i wouldn't be angry because i wouldn't know what it did.

Yeah but if somebody offered you it when you hadn't heard of it (the internet that is), you would want it, right? I mean that's basically how it came into use, just like anything else.

 

[Megawizard]

I think this except on the article of the Jove from EvE Online sums up my view pretty well:

"Over the thousands of years since, the Jovians have experimented with every kind of genetic modification their technology allowed. As their powers grew, they began to believe they were capable of anything, and this led them into increasingly more bizarre mutations of their bodies and minds, a policy rigorously backed up by strict governmental control.

But one fateful moment in their history made them lose this control for a few generations, and the results were catastrophic. By this time the Jovians had begun interfering with their basic instincts, curbing their aggression and sexual instincts and cultivating strange new ones instead. Since the Shrouded Days, as the Jovians call their momentary social eclipse, they have been trying to put the pieces together again, but their DNA-structure has in many ways been damaged beyond repair. The consequence is the dreaded Jovian Disease. Genetic in nature, it is not infectious to other races, but among Jovians it causes a depression so deep and serious that the victim loses the will to live, and death results within a few days or weeks."

 

[Akai Shizuku]

Nay, regardless of circumstances. It would cause an immense amount of problems, death and possibly even zombies. People shouldn't play God, because it's messing with powers you can't control.

 

[Dr Ampersand]

Screw nature.

If we can improve on something, then by all means we should.

Tell me right now, if human kind one day figured out how to make humans grow wings and fly, would you say "I don't want them"?

If someone who was an asshole one day realised that he can fly naked and shit on people and fly away would you say," I don't want them"?

 

[silicon avatar]

Yay. Though lets be carfull, lest we make somthing like the andromedia strain or the biological equivilant of Von Neumans "grey goo"