Pathetic Engineering

Genetic Engineering can highly beneficial for society, but if abused it could tear everything apart. If we obtain the ability to prevent autism, or heart disease, or diabetes, or reduce the risk of someone becoming an alcoholic; then that could only benefit everyone in the long run. But once you start changing hair color and turning your baby into Mr. Potato Head, where does it end? And how long will it take for everyone to be exactly the same?

There is enough competition in the world already. There are enough fights at young children’s sports games between two parents who are living vicariously through their son or daughter. It is only a matter of time before parents are trying to make the “perfect baby.” No one wants their child to be ugly or incapable or left out. So given the chance, people are going to turn their baby into what is socially acceptable. No parent I have talked to that maybe had not originally planned on a baby at a certain time ever has any regret. Any parent with a son or daughter with a mental disability when asked if they wished things were different usually answers with something like, “It’s hard sometimes, but I couldn’t imagine life without Billy.”

Try to imagine a world where every body is the same. Maybe there are some variations, but small ones. Every one is beautiful, smart, and athletic; every one is perfect. All competition would essentially and eventually come to a complete stalemate. And then what is the solution? Start killing each other? I know I hate to lose; everybody hates to lose. Picture this: Yankees verse Red Sox, now nine innings is boring enough, and it’s bottom of the three million two hundred thousand and twenty second, and you can end the game if you simply kill the batter. At what point is people’s natural yearning to win and succeed and be the best going to outweigh their morals? It sure wouldn’t take me very long.

It is certainly a great thought. You don’t have to worry about your child dying before you. You don’t have to worry about getting Alzheimer’s or your loved one getting Alzheimer’s. You can send your son or daughter to school without having to worry if the kids will like them, or if they will be able to find a date for prom. If you don’t want your child to be homosexual, or if you do, you can have it that way. It is like playing a video game and you go into “create a player” mode and you can make the perfect quarter back to play for the Giants and lead your team to the Super Bowl. But this is not a video game, this is life. We watch movies in which they do amazing things that we could never do and with actors and actresses that are beautiful and we dream of having that. And that’s the reason why they are movies and not real life. Because things do not happen like that and things would not work out if we tried to live our lives being perfect and flawless.

I have gone through many, many hardships throughout my life and you always come to a point where you sit and say, “why me?” And you wish that things were different and that you could just have the perfect life. But when I think about it, I would not be half the person I am today if I had not had to overcome so many things. No one would be. If you woke up everyday knowing that you were going to succeed and never had to fight for anything or work hard for anything, then no one would have any ambition or strive for anything more. You would have no need to. I sure wouldn’t work or have hopes for more if I had everything laid out in front of me and I had no reason to get up earlier than someone else, or go to school for longer than someone else.

Our differences are what make us. People always say you will fall in love with someone completely different from you, because they make you complete. But if everyone is the same, then where are you to find love and happiness? Our lives would be completely stripped of any excitement or variation. No one would have any reason to go see movies anymore, because their life would be one. As everyone jocks for position, everyone will fall short, because everyone has the same qualifications, and they’re all beautiful and no one has the upper hand anywhere. The benefits of genetic engineering are endless. But the destruction it could do is almost inevitable and irreversible.