Biotechnology\'s Influence on Human Life

Biotechnology's influence on human life is growing exponentially, and has already made significant advances in the areas of agriculture with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) (Johnson, et.al.), gene splicing therapy including DNA mapping and the practice in certain countries of trying to influence the intelligence of babies (Swedin, et.al). The ethics of biotechnology are just the beginning of the controversies in this area, with the highly productive uses of this technology to increase crop yields and increase the likelihood of defeating life-threatening diseases on the one hand yet threaten privacy and human life on the other. The intent of this paper is to compare how biotechnology can make significant contributions to human life, in addition to potentially threatening it as well.

The Promise of Biotechnology

The most promising aspects of biotechnology are first in understanding how viruses organize themselves and grow, and how they can be countered at the genetic level in humans. The immediate effect of this advance is to reduce mortality from diseases that appear uncontrollable today, including AIDS, cancer and other terminal diseases. Yet the study of viruses is not limited to just these areas of medicine. There are implications for making integrated circuits more efficient and less costly to operate based on lessons being learned from biotechnology's use in virus-based integrated circuit design (Fairley, 36-41). The addition of stem cell research to understand the implications of DNA mapping and gene-splicing to alleviate potentially harmful genetic conditions in patients also shows the potential to make significant contributions to bettering the quality of human life. There are arguments for and against the ethics of understanding how DNA mapping and gene-splicing impact humans, yet having these insights are critical for prolonging and enhancing the quality of human life.

The Threats of Biotechnology

The downside of biotechnology is in man's tendency to try and rte-order nature for their specific preferences or to alleviate genetically-based deficiencies as well. The most dangerous of these practices is the use throughout the European Union (EU) to grow crops and raise livestock using Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) (Johnson, 62, 63). To date there is little longitudinal analysis of the long-term effects of these foods on humans. GMO-based crops and livestock are also altering the economic structure of the EU's economies as well. The use of biotechnology to also change the intelligence level of children to close the "Smart-baby gap" as it is called in China is an unethical and unchartered territory (Swedin, et.al). This use of biotechnology to drastically re-order the intelligence levels of Chinese infants and attempt to increase their intelligence through biotechnology while they are still in the womb is one of the most potentially dangerous uses. The attempt to re-order, modify and change the natural order of DNA is extremely dangerous and could lead to deaths and deformities. By far, tampering with DNA and attempting to increase intelligence through the use of biotechnology is unethical and the most dangerous series of activities occurring today. The Chinese fascination with having only boys is an epidemic in the rural regions of their nation. Adding in biotechnology just makes this social process of favoring boys into Chinese families all the more acute and unbalanced. The use of biotechnologies to further ethnically-driven issues like this is the most detrimental to human life.