Genetic engineering...should we play god?

[Gelgoog]

what do you all think about genetic engineering of new lifeforms or bringing back extinct ones? Jurassic Park anyone? Does man have the right to play god? Should we be messing with the human genome to create super humans to advance humanity?

If your against genetic engineering would you change your mind if they could cure things like cancer, heart disease, balding, ED, small tits syndrome( ok I made that one up )?

edit: The reference to playing god, means messing with nature. The topic really has no relevance to a religious god at all.

[Playfishpaste]

There's nothing wrong with Genetic Engineering, just as there is nothing wrong with Mechanical or Electrical Engineering.

[Bwaho]

Like you said it might enable us to cure various ailments.

[The Count(er)]

I think the very fact that we can do it means that we're not playing god. It can be very beneficial, I don't see much reason to stop working towards it.

[PointOfViewGun]

Other the fact that as The Count(er) said we can do it, it's still is no different than other Engineering fields as Bwaho said. If we can play with the forces of nature why can't we with the nature itself?

[CtrlAltDe1337]

We already genetically modify stuff now, so I don't see how its much different (and I don't see anything wrong with what we do now).

[Lord Consul]

I absolutely hate this "Humans are playing God" thing. As far as I know, God's existence is not a proven fact. Genetic engineering may be the decisive step we need to take in order to drastically raise the standard of life of our species.

Fortunately I was born without any kind of serious disability. However, I suffer from severe bouts of asthma and allergy. I'm myopic and have to use glasses (or lenses) to see anything more than 10 steps away from me. Life would not be so much better if there were no longer conditions such as asthma, allergy, visual impairment?

We could make humans with expanded lifespans. Imagine how much beauty and art a man such as Leonardo da Vinci or Monet could have produced had he lived 200 years instead of 67? There would no longer disease, or hunger, or pain. I'm not naïve enough to believe that these possibilities would be extended to all mankind. In the first decades after the breakthrough, there would probably be a small "genetic elite" and huge masses of "excluded" people. There would be chaos, social strife. But in the end equality would be achieved.

[persianfan247]

Anyway if it was only the right I God to do this stuff then we couldn't do it since we are human, so clearly if there is a God he gave us the ability to do so, maybe you might say to test our faith I guess, but I don't believe in that guy anyway.

Also I would define Natural as something non-man made, or non organism made and unnatural as simply the opposite, there is nothing wrong with unnatural, since it is merely a distinction and the reality is that there is nothing different between natural and unnatural, so all things unatural are exsentially natural, because we have been naturally gifted with the ability to do so.

For instince, being gay is not unnatural, contrary to what a South African, half-African, half-European Muslim said to me recently, because since we have the ability to do so, or be so, surely it is then natural, just the same as a viruses ability to kill us is natural.

This all relates back to the question obviously. But maybe genetic engennering could lead to some grusome stuff, but that stuff probably isn't really realistic and probably belongs to the realm of science-fiction and I trust the science community.


So in conclusion yeah, just as long as it dosn't lead to any problems for humantiy, or it results ruining a creatures life.

[Bwaho]

besides, if God allows humans to be born with severe disabilities (not being to walk etc) then maybe God is an and we shouldn't be listening to him.

[Gelgoog]

I absolutely hate this "Humans are playing God" thing. As far as I know, God's existence is not a proven fact. Genetic engineering may be the decisive step we need to take in order to drastically raise the standard of life of our species.

Fortunately I was born without any kind of serious disability. However, I suffer from severe bouts of asthma and allergy. I'm myopic and have to use glasses (or lenses) to see anything more than 10 steps away from me. Life would not be so much better if there were no longer conditions such as asthma, allergy, visual impairment?

We could make humans with expanded lifespans. Imagine how much beauty and art a man such as Leonardo da Vinci or Monet could have produced had he lived 200 years instead of 67? There would no longer disease, or hunger, or pain. I'm not naïve enough to believe that these possibilities would be extended to all mankind. In the first decades after the breakthrough, there would probably be a small "genetic elite" and huge masses of "excluded" people. There would be chaos, social strife. But in the end equality would be achieved.

yes but with expanded lifespans, no disease.. you open yourself up to a major problem....enormous overpopulation. You would have to have an overarching government to enforce reproduction laws.

Also when you do genetic engineering you could run into the risk of making the gene pool not diverse enough and allow a sort of plague to sweep through the ranks of the engineered.

BTW- when I mention god in the OP, I did not mean literally god, I meant nature. should we play god meaning should we be messing around with stuff that we do not fully understand?

[bushbush]

yes but with expanded lifespans, no disease.. you open yourself up to a major problem....enormous overpopulation. You would have to have an overarching government to enforce reproduction laws.

Also when you do genetic engineering you could run into the risk of making the gene pool not diverse enough and allow a sort of plague to sweep through the ranks of the engineered.

BTW- when I mention god in the OP, I did not mean literally god, I meant nature. should we play god meaning should we be messing around with stuff that we do not fully understand?

you wouldn't be saying that if you have family members (or even yourself) are suffering from diseases that could be cured by genetic engineering....

[Gelgoog]

you wouldn't be saying that if you have family members (or even yourself) are suffering from diseases that could be cured by genetic engineering....

hey I am just playing devils advocate. Personally I am all in favor of genetic engineering, I just think we need to look at both sides

[bushbush]

hey I am just playing devils advocate. Personally I am all in favor of genetic engineering, I just think we need to look at both sides

sorry about the previous statement.

[Andurath]

yes but with expanded lifespans, no disease.. you open yourself up to a major problem....enormous overpopulation. You would have to have an overarching government to enforce reproduction laws.

Also when you do genetic engineering you could run into the risk of making the gene pool not diverse enough and allow a sort of plague to sweep through the ranks of the engineered.

BTW- when I mention god in the OP, I did not mean literally god, I meant nature. should we play god meaning should we be messing around with stuff that we do not fully understand?

This begs the question, who will make the decision of what can and will be done with genetic research? Is it ultimately going to go under some kind of world government controls? Because wherever it is regulated harshly stands to 'miss out' on many developments while the more adventurous countries will benefit ( or lose as the case may be).

I think many scientists are woefully inexperienced about what balance is about in the things that they make. As careful as they might be the world is full of instances of upset balances caused by well meaning scientists. So, I don't just trust scientists to make all the good decisions. It's a strange dilemna / dichotomy whatever you want to call it. On the one hand there are huge good things to be gained, on the other so many possible destructive results. I am happy to 'line-up' for the personal benefits if they are proven, but loath to have to pay for the misteps.

So playing god and creating new things sounds good, but how will that be managed? Have you all seen the websites out there for our genetically altered futures ? Mermaids, people with tentacles? lol...it's gonna get err..interesting to say the least. I wonder if I will be cornered someday by a salesman telling me I too can have wings and fly like a bird? Tempting thought...

[Nimthill]

This begs the question, who will make the decision of what can and will be done with genetic research? Is it ultimately going to go under some kind of world government controls? Because wherever it is regulated harshly stands to 'miss out' on many developments while the more adventurous countries will benefit ( or lose as the case may be).

I think many scientists are woefully inexperienced about what balance is about in the things that they make. As careful as they might be the world is full of instances of upset balances caused by well meaning scientists. So, I don't just trust scientists to make all the good decisions. It's a strange dilemna / dichotomy whatever you want to call it. On the one hand there are huge good things to be gained, on the other so many possible destructive results. I am happy to 'line-up' for the personal benefits if they are proven, but loath to have to pay for the misteps.

So playing god and creating new things sounds good, but how will that be managed? Have you all seen the websites out there for our genetically altered futures ? Mermaids, people with tentacles? lol...it's gonna get err..interesting to say the least. I wonder if I will be cornered someday by a salesman telling me I too can have wings and fly like a bird? Tempting thought...

Genetics don't really work that way. They will modify your offspring rather than you. Humans don't really grow new organs or limps (if you cut off your hand, it won't grow back) so you won't be able to grow anything kewl outside your mothers womb.

As for opening up new diseases: modifying humans doesn't breed new diseases which affect "normal" humans. We might breed humans that are especially suseptable to certain diseases or even new disease, but the "old human" will not be affected. So its part of the deal: get wings and get sick or stay normal. Don't really see the problem tbh.

[Andurath]

Genetics don't really work that way. They will modify your offspring rather than you. Humans don't really grow new organs or limps (if you cut off your hand, it won't grow back) so you won't be able to grow anything kewl outside your mothers womb.

So how do genetics work? Some rather amazing things have been done in the laboratory to change the physical and personality characteristics of Mice, but what are the limits of change? Can you explain to us how epigenetics work? Isn't it true that when we finished the genome project we simply opened up a whole new area of research that hasn't been nearly fathomed yet? Is it not possible that we have to completely re-work our current understanding of genetics due to that?

Some scientists are saying that we need to do a new genome project to discover the full range of action of the proteins sitting on top of the genes that instruct them on what do do. This governs things as simple as whether or not a heart cell is a heart cell to whether or not a heart cell decides to become cancerous or not . So is it impossible to change one thing to another? I dunno , you may be entirely correct, it might be that it's simply another philosopher stone project of the human genetic make-up. Perhaps it is something else. I am certainly no genetic expert so please enlighten me.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The best example of epigenetic changes in eukaryotic biology is the process of cellular differentiation. During morphogenesis, totipotent stem cells become the various pluripotent cell lines of the embryo which in turn become fully differentiated cells. In other words, a single fertilized egg cell - the zygote - changes into the many cell types including neurons, muscle cells, epithelium, blood vessels etc. as it continues to divide. It does so by activating some genes while inhibiting others.[3]

According to this research it is not impossible for one to create entire organ replacements and even change existing biology within the 'host' for the change. Still highly theroretical in human implementation many things have been done to 'lesser' organisms to prove this point including replacing /repairing certain organs. Other research is going into repairing existing organs that are damaged using epigenetic knowledge and stem cells. The results of such research are unpredictable but show some promise that we may not have to create host organisms for organ replacement.

[The spartan]

yes but with expanded lifespans, no disease.. you open yourself up to a major problem....enormous overpopulation. You would have to have an overarching government to enforce reproduction laws.

Also when you do genetic engineering you could run into the risk of making the gene pool not diverse enough and allow a sort of plague to sweep through the ranks of the engineered.

BTW- when I mention god in the OP, I did not mean literally god, I meant nature. should we play god meaning should we be messing around with stuff that we do not fully understand?

Well here you are running into problems scientists are just now trying to deal with. We currently don't have a sustainable population on earth, at least with resource usage being what it is. More people would just add to the problem but what do you tell scientists? Stop coming up with cures? Don't release a swine flu vaccination? This is a whole new ethical issue of "is saving people just killing us faster?".

[Arch-hereticK]

We need to block progress because it's icky.

[Gaidin]

All genetic engineering needs is the same kind of ethics training that every other engineering career gets and we're set.

[Saladin_2008]

God is a concept humans created, to those that make that connection we aren't playing anything
in essence we are making a human concept a human reality