Should Genetic Engineering Be Allowed

Sharon Bernardi has had seven children. All but one died just a few hours after birth, while the survivor lived with extreme defects until his passing at age 21. At first the doctors could not figure out what was causing the seemingly healthy babies to suddenly pass away, but after her fourth baby, they found that it was from a deadly disease called Leigh’s syndrome, an abnormality in the mitochondria that the mother passes on to her children. Leigh’s syndrome causes severe psychomotor regression, which is a progressive loss of mental and movement abilities that cause the body to fail, and leads to death. Sharon was heartbroken to see every one of her children only live a few hours and for those few hours to be filled with severe pain. After
Genes that provide individual characteristics involve many DNA cells making it more difficult to be able to be manipulated. Height, for example, has hundreds of genes that contribute to it. Controlling a trait like that would be virtually impossible. Traits that contribute to personality, talent, and outer “beauty” should not be controlled. Nita Farahany, a Professor of Science at Duke University, states that “Technology itself is not evil. Only the misuse and misapplication of it is” (Farahany). Genetic engineering should be used with the purpose of preventing abnormalities and disease alone. With careful regulations by the government, that can be done (Krimsky,
Emilee Pehrson, a person who suffers from a genetic condition known as cystic fibrosis, was asked about her trials of starting a family. She delivered her first, a baby girl, six weeks early due to complications with her health. After her birth, her daughter was tested for the disease and they found that she was a carrier with the Delta F508 mutation, but she did not have cystic fibrosis. Though her first child was born without cystic fibrosis, six years later when she wanted a second child she found that her health was too unstable to support a healthy pregnancy. She turned to the option of a surrogate pregnancy. Her physician strongly suggested that her husband, Ben, be tested for the carrier gene so see the likelihood of their next baby inheriting the disease. If he tested positive the chances of the baby inheriting cystic fibrosis would increase significantly. To their luck, Ben tested negative to be a carrier and they were able to carry out a successful surrogate pregnancy and had a beautiful baby boy. However, had Ben been a carrier, Emilee admitted that she would’ve genetically modified her embryos to prevent her child from suffering from the same disease she suffers from (Pehrson). Emilee, like many others with genetic diseases, understands the importance that genetic engineering is to those struggling to get