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The Pros And Cons Of Biotechnology

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The Pros And Cons Of Biotechnology
There are many current legal and ethical issues in bioengineering and biotechnology including athletic and cognitive enhancements, stem cell research, cloning, genetic engineering, and genetically modified organisms. Biotechnology is “the manipulation of biological systems and organisms through technological means”(p. 471). There is tension between valuing liberty to pursue happiness of biotechnologies, and the potential negative outcomes of these technologies. Bioengineering, is the construction of machines to alter or supplement organisms.
Biotechnologies result in therapeutic effects or extraordinary forms of enhancement. When biotechnologies are used in a therapeutic sense in order to restore normal function to an organism suffering due to an illness or injury. An enhancement on the other hand provides more than normal function to an organism.
There are many moral dilemmas surrounding biotechnology. It is important to distinguish between athletic and cognitive enhancements, and athletic and cognitive therapy. Athletes who wish to bulk up and build muscle is an example of athletic enhancement. The legal and ethical arguments of this issue is mainly between liberty and negative consequences. Those who choose liberty are choosing to freely do whatever they want to …show more content…
Bostrom believes that nature can give humans undesirable traits like cancer, and that parent’s foreseeing a disease of issue of this magnitude of right and need to do whatever it takes to protect their child from this
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