Genetic Engineering

Ever since man was created, they have been curios about the nature of the world. Man naturally chooses the best situation, friends or partners to be with. They do this without even knowing. This basic instinct has led people to attempt genetic engineering. Genetic engineering by definition is the directed altering of a plant or organism by sewing part of another plant or organism onto it, thus changing the first DNA or gene blueprint. (Sammon) Genetic engineering has led to genetically modified humans in May 2001; human embryo’s cloned with three parents in November 2001, and exact identical clones of the woman who provided the cells to make the clones in 2004. Genetic engineering is not safe though. The person who genetically engineers something is crossing something that never would have crossed in the real world. The endeavors of genetic engineering are a cripple to society because it is morally wrong, it is unsafe, and can be harmful to the environment.

Since God created all things as they should be, man does not have a need to create anything better than it already is. It is wrong to try to change what has been given to us by the grace of God. If you tamper with someone or something’s DNA, the biotechnologists are playing God. (Heaf) At conception, nature takes its course and makes what destiny has intended to be your child. In the movie “Gattaca, released in 1998, a young man named Vincent states, “They used to say that a child conceived in love has a greater chance of happiness. They don’t say that anymore.” If a child in not engineered perfectly with no side effects, then it will be truly perfect. If the child has one small defect, than it is of no more use to human society than to clean the toilets. In Jurassic Park, a book by Micheal Critchon, a character Ian Malcolm

states that Hammonds scientist were so preoccupied by whether or not they could clone dinosaurs, they never stopped and wondered if they should. God did not make mistakes in how he created us. Take for instance a young child with Down’s syndrome. Many people would like to have this defect altered in their unborn child so that the child may not develop the disease as the child gets older. Rather, Down’s children are usually happy and not only bring a ray of sunlight into families but also offers opportunities for family members to develop capacities which they might not otherwise have developed. (Heaf) Everything God has given us has been given for a reason and for no circumstance should that change.

Currently, many accidents and deaths have been reported because of genetic engineering. When biologist cloned Dolly the sheep in 2001, clones were reported to become old before their time and the experiments showed highly wasteful of eggs and embryos, 277 in this case. (Heaf) The dangers of genetic engineering have not yet been discovered. Ian Malcolm, a character from the book, Jurassic Park by Michael Critchon, states that discovery is a violent, penetrative act that scars what it explores. It is rape of the natural world. Malcolm

is saying that anything human beings tamper with will be left with an unnatural hidden scar that nothing can erase. If, say for instance, humans engineering carrots, but they turned out to be toxic with horrible side effects, we could ship them to countries of dislike and hence create a weapon of