Human Genome Project :: essays research papers

It all started back in 1953 with two men by the names of crowd D. Watson and Francis Crick when they discovered thedouble-helical structure of DNA. Little did they know they wereopening the door to the creation of a perfect world. In 1986,the Human Genome Project, led up by the National Institution ofHealth(NIH), took a giant leap through this door. They began thelong process of mapping out the entire genetic makeup of thehuman body. The important purpose of the HGP was primitively for theuse of preventing inherent diseases. However, as studiescontinue to progress, increased opportunities arise forgenetically altering the unborn. You are now able to choose the perk up of you child before they are born with great accuracy. Whatis on the horizon now, is the possibility of designing your childto be &8220perfect. Over the years, there has been heated, ethical dispute on each of these issues, especially designer babies. How far will we let biotechnological discovery take us? Whatwill c ome of the world if designer babies conk standardprocedure?The earliest and maybe simplest use of genetic manipulationwas in the selection of the sex of an unborn child. In VitroFertilization(IVF - A procedure in which a woman&8217s eggs areremoved from her body, fertilized outside using sperm from herhusband or another donor, and then transferred back to her body.)was originally limited to couples that were infertile. Even theuse of IVF for the infertile was unheard of at one point. &8220Butgrowing demand makes it socially acceptable, and now anybodywho&8217s infertile demands IVF, says lee(prenominal) Silver, a PrincetonUniversity biologist. Several years ago, fertility clinicsannounced the new possibility of sex selection. It was obviouslyan exciting breakthrough, but when these clinics were inquiredabout their results, they only had about a 50 percent successrate. &8220Its affluent clients could have achieved exactly the sameoutcome by leaving a note for the tooth fairy, reque sting a girlor a boy(Riddell). In the same way, there were many who wereopposed to the idea at first especially with the results theywere getting, but over time the procedures have been aboutperfected and it has become socially acceptable.(Lemonick)Many issues have arisen from the possibilities sex selectionwill provide. In cultures where males are valued more thangirls, such as china and India, assured sex selection couldreally throw off an already out of balance society. In theUnited States it may not be as likely for there to be a favoredsex, generally speaking. In our case, it is more of a weighted