Biotechnology, the genetic modification of humans to enhance their physical and intellectual abilities and even bring back extinct animals, can be beneficial for human progress, but it requires careful consideration of ethical issues and ecological balance.
We learned about genetically modified foods in middle and high school. Genetically modified foods are new foods that are created by removing genes that are disadvantages of the original food, such as corn, and adding genes that are beneficial to humans. These foods become a new species. What happens when we apply this kind of genetic manipulation to humans? We call it biotechnology. By using biotechnology, humans are trying to eliminate their disadvantages and emphasize their advantages. But would a human whose genes have been altered by biotechnology still be a human? If all humans on the planet were to be genetically altered by biotechnology, would the human race be considered extinct?
Biotechnology is the deliberate intervention of humans at the level of biology. It aims to modify an organism’s form, abilities, needs, wants, or desires. For example, humans have castrated bulls to make them more manageable, or transplanted bovine cartilage into the backs of mice to make them grow ears so that they can be transplanted into people without ears. One example of an event that has directly benefited humans is the genetic modification of E. coli. E. coli and several species of fungi have been genetically engineered to produce insulin, which has helped people with diabetes, making treatment much less expensive. As you can see, biotechnology is a beneficial field that has helped humanity in many ways.
Biotechnology is not only used for human convenience. Biotechnology can also recreate extinct animals, meaning that humans are trying to become gods by recreating extinct creatures themselves and doing God’s work for him. An example of this is taking genes from the carcasses of mammoths, an extinct animal found in Siberia, and using them to recreate the extinct mammoth. They don’t stop at animals, but also try to recreate Neanderthals, the closest relatives of Homo sapiens, the humans who live on Earth today. Scientists hope to unlock the secrets of the brain by comparing the brain structure of the reincarnated Neanderthal with that of the current human population.
In this way, biotechnology can make endless advances using living things. So scientists thought that if genetic manipulation was applied directly to humans, humanity could become much more advanced, and people expect that biotechnology, together with genetic engineering, could improve human physiological functions, longevity, as well as emotional and intellectual abilities in a few decades. Our intelligence could be enhanced with genes from smart people, and our lifespan could be increased with genes from long-lived animals. But is this biotechnological enhancement of humanity a good thing? The movie ‘ GATTACA ‘ shows us the answer.
