Gentic Catastrophe essays

Gentic Catastrophe essays While the 20th century was shaped largely by spectacular breakthroughs in the field of physics and chemistry, the 21st century will belong to the biological sciences. Scientists around the world are quickly deciphering the genetic code of life, unlocking the mystery of biological evolution on Earth. As a result of the new breakthrough in biology and biotechnology, our way of life is likely to be more fundamentally transformed in the next several decades than in the previous thousand years. By the year 2025, we and our children may be living in a world utterly different from anything human beings have ever experienced in the past (Rifkin 30). Some ideas in genetic science are fast growing dilemmas that society is going to have to deal with in time. Producing a superior race by altering peoples genetic code or cloning, is thought to be unethical. In the future what would stop families that can afford to program superior genetic traits into their fetuses at conception that will ensure their offspring an even greater biological advantage and thus a social and economic advantage as well. This would affect the people without an altered genetic code because as stated in Darwins theory that only the strong survive, people without altered genes would become less efficient and would not survive as well in society. Molecular biologist Lee Silver of Princeton University writes about that in a not too distant future, society will be made up of two distinct biological classes, which he refers to as the Gene Rich and the Naturals. The Gene Rich, who will account for 10% of the population, have been enhanced with synthetic genes and wi ll become the rulers of society. They would include Gene Rich businesspeople, musicians, artists, intellectuals, and athletes each enhanced with specific synthetic genes to allow them to succeed in their respective fields in wa ...