Dinesh D'souza Staying Human Summary

In today’s world, you can have your baby with blue eyes, perfect height, and how you want your baby to look when is old. Now we can even make a baby be born smart because now scientists are more specialized in genetic and how the genes work. For example, if women can’t have babies she can rent a belly from another woman so she can have the baby but the baby is going to have the DNA of the women who can’t have babies, not of the other woman. Is pretty impressive how today scientist can modify genetically the genes of babies before they are even born. Now in today’s world is almost possible to create the perfect baby if we want. It is impressive that this idea originated from a period of time where there was little knowledge about genes.

Hughes pays particular attention to the development of his introduction because he acknowledges the importance of the audience’s initial reaction to the concept of human enhancements in setting the stage as to how willing they would be in accepting Hughes’ argument. These introductions are effective in generating a sense of pride and awe in “The Human Condition Hurts: We’d Be Fools Not to Better It” and reflection in “The Politics of Transhumanism and the Techno-Millennial Imagination, 1626-2030” within their audience. Hughes is able to take advantage of these feelings and evoke his readers to view the debate from different mindsets. For example, in the academic journal, enhancement advocates and dissenters become self-aware of the increasing conflict regarding bio-enhancements. In contrast, the readers of the opinion article open their eyes to an issue they’ve either unknowingly dismissed or secretly feared - they’re now more open to the embracing of human enhancements. In this way, Hughes is able to gain the attention of both experts and non-experts simply through his introduction and sets a stage to further explore a complex topic. Hughes’ tactic of capturing the audience

Julian Savulescu argues that genetic enhancement is not only morally permissible, but it is morally obligatory to genetically enhance one’s own child. Savulescu presents three points to defend his claim, but his vague language causes his argument to be unacceptable.

As technology improves, so do human capabilities of altering nature, which in turn creates increased responsibility. This directly relates to genetic engineering, which is beginning to morph into a reality. There are advocates for both sides that convey their personal opinions about the hypothetical results, but neither is clearly superior since both arguments speculate upon an unknown future. Hungarian psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, outlines this topic in his essay “The Future of Happiness,” which focuses on the history of selective breeding and compares the goal of happiness with genetic engineering. Csikszentmihalyi alternates between viewpoints regarding genetic engineering but presents a perspective dominated by warning. Csikszentmihalyi’s presents a chronologically structured explanation of selective breeding with progressive rhetorical questions that balance his support between the validity of the scientific study of happiness and his trepidation regarding potential dangers of the use of genetic engineering for predetermined beneficial traits.

In 1932, Aldous Huxley imagined and wrote about a world where designer baby technology is prevalent in his science-fiction novel, Brave New World. The technology would not come until many years later, but his ideas still hold up today. In the book, there were different classes depending on how genetically modified one was, including Alpha or Beta (“The Public Should Oppose Designer Baby Technology”). Outside of science fiction, though, is real science where an actual baby can be genetically modified before even being born. A designed baby is one that is purposefully shaped to be one way or another through processes including In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), where an egg is fertilized and genetically altered, and preimplantation genetic diagnosis

C. Ben Mitchell, a professor of Moral Philosopher at the Union University, in his article, “On Human Bioenhancements” (200), argues against the use of human enhancement which has emerge questioning about, the principles of justice, and cultural complicity. Mitchell supports his argument by describing how this method is an unethical behavior by the medical community and how this new technology should not be implement anywhere in the future. His purpose is to persuade his readers not to support this new method which will have a negative effect within our society, and instead of helping our future generation it will destroy our human nature. The author’s audience likely consists of professors, college professors, parents, with some understanding

This relates to the book Unwind through the idea of discrimination. It is the discrimination to the unwinds in Unwind, and the faith borne in Gattaca. Although it is not based on one’s phenotype, it destroys people’s willpower instead. This kind of discrimination not only kills the future of the people who didn’t have their genes modified, but also makes the people who have perfect genes unable to face failure. Gerome is a great example. He is a former swimmer but after receiving one silver medal after the countless number of gold medals he had won, he decided to suicide. He tried to kill himself through a car accident. Gerome survived from the accident but he is then crippled from the accident. This shows us that even though the advanced technologies can modify our body, but they can not modify our mind, instead, it may have negative effects on our mind, making us lacking will power. As science may appear to make the society a more organised place, but it is also killing humanity slowly as people loses their

In the third chapter of Ronald M. Green’s Babies by Design Green suggest the idea of categorizing the different degrees of human gene modification into the style of Punnett squares. Additionally, this chapter mainly focuses on the boundaries and of genetic engineering from Somatic modification treatment to germline enhancement.

The amazing thing about the world today is the rapidly changing society, and the contemporary technology. Something that scientist have been working to perfect for many years is the modernization of eugenics. It is changing the way people are born by selecting specific traits for an individual to be smarter, stronger, more attractive and many other traits. Many parents of the new generation are willing to try the science of eugenics for their child to be customized to them.

Editing of the human genome in the past has been only a sight seen in dystopia works such as Brave New World. Now, genetic enhancement is a prevalent today and people are beginning to realize the issues that can arise from creating these designer babies. Gene editing can be helpful to eradicate life changing disabilities. Yet, the term disability does not correctly label these differently abled people, as the idea of what is considered disabled has changed overtime. To fully understand the consequences and implications of genetic selection and enhancement of human embryos, society must mature and declare lines of what is and is not ethically moral.

If we were able to make our children smarter, better looking, or more athletic, should we? Amy Sterling Casil had that exact scenario in mind when she wrote her short story, Perfect Stranger in 2006. Written in the first-person narrative that takes place in the distant future, Casil weaves a terrifying story of genetic alteration to “fix” our children’s flaws. What harm can it cause if gene therapy is performed as an elective procedure rather than medical necessity? Gary and Carolyn, expecting parents, find out their little boy will need gene therapy while still in the womb if they hope to spare him from a fatal heart condition. Due to the therapy, their little boy, Denny, is born healthy. As time goes on they are presented with opportunities to make him smarter, thinner, and more athletic. In turn, Gary questions if they have made the right moral decision concerning their son. Furthermore, what happens to the relationship between a father and his son when the son becomes a perfect stranger? Perfect Stranger illustrates how a parent’s decision to change pieces of their son’s genetic makeup cannot only change what makes him who he is but, can also have a negative impact on the people around him.

Therefore, if two parents are carriers of a certain gene that will disable their child, they can modify that gene to make a child that will not have that disability. As well as some parents will have designer babies to save another child they already have with a certain disease. In this method, parents will choose their child’s blood type and such in order for them to match that other diseased child and potentially give them their blood, marrow, and even organs. Genetically modifying a child’s chance of disease ensures that a child may live a life without potential disease and disability that they may have been more prone to had their parents’ not used this method. This also ensures a healthy life for a child that had a greater potential of having a medical condition due to their parents being carriers of that particular gene. However, many scientists say this is already possible in a much safer and less invasive way. It is far easier to genetically screen embryos for high-risk versions of genes following in vitro fertilization and prior to implantation in the mother. Not to mention, we already practice this as a society, for example, when smart rich people marry other smart rich people, they usually produce another generation of smart rich people; which is known as assortative mating. Another example is when a mother aborts a fetus that has a genetic defect, or when IVF

Imagine you have a son. A sweet baby boy, your smile, your partner’s eyes, a laugh of pure gold and a spirit as wild as a mustang. He is bright, loves to read and loves to follow his daddy. He is everything you could have ever asked for, every dream you’ve ever had appears in this young child. He runs at the park, tries to lick the dog, and will laugh to the point of tears at practically anything. Imagine this sweet boy that you love beyond anything in the world getting sick. Slowly, you watch as the light in his eye dwindles and that sparkle in his laugh turns dull. He hasn’t left that hospital bed in weeks, the first teddy bear he ever received lay by his side. The doctors say that they have tried everything. He is too young, too precious, this can’t be it, you can’t lose him, no not this early. Another doctor walks in. He states he may have a cure; stem cells.

Throughout the novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley discusses a plethora of themes. She presents these themes through the characters and their actions. Some of these themes can spark some arguments and raise a few questions. One of these themes presented in Frankenstein is birth and creation and presents a significant topic in today’s world. Can man play the role of God?

What is your image of perfect? By altering genes it would be possible to produce, what in your eyes might be, the “perfect” child. Designer babies are children whose genes are artificially altered and replaced at an embryonic stage to either express or eliminate certain genes. English physician, Walter Heape, established the scientific roots of in vitro fertilization in the late-nineteenth century by transferring embryos from one rabbit to another. The first successful application of IVF in humans took place almost a century later on July 25, 1978, when Louise Brown was born and entitled the world 's first “test-tube baby” (Lerner). This procedure’s purpose is to switch out genes for more preferred ones, especially to improve the health of the child. Genetic engineering could permit selection of desired physical and pleasurable traits for non-medical reasons, which has created concern in some people. The process of switching out the genes of a fetus to install genes that are more preferred has brought up debate about whether or not parents should be able to alter their babies genes to make them more appealing to the parents interests. There are many different ways of looking at this procedure and in contrast to other scientific procedures it can be for greater good or for unnecessary enhancement that could potentially create problems in society. Designer babies aren’t morally correct or incorrect, but are in between depending on what it is being used for.