Summary Of The Moral Imperative To Bioethics
In late 2015, Mr. Steven Pinker published an editorial with the Boston Globe titled, “The moral imperative to bioethics”, which concerned me quite a bit.
Mr. Pinker’s editorial was over the new technique of CRISPR-Cas9. This technique allows one, relatively cheaply and easily, to go through a genome, target certain undesirable genetic sequences, cut those sequences out, and implant a new genetic sequence of ones choosing. While this sounds amazing at first, and something that Mr. Pinker wants us to believe is as simple as that, the truth of the matter is, that it is not.
Mr. Pinker starts off his editorial stating that everyone has “had a friend or relative who has died prematurely or endured years of suffering from a physical or psychiatric disease” (2). He continues by stating, “Just imagine how much happier you would be if a prematurely deceased love one were alive, or a debilitated one were vigorous…” (2). This particular part actually did draw a response from me, where I began to think of my late grandfather. He developed Alzheimer’s later in his life, was a type-2 diabetic, and contracted Lyme’s disease whenever I was an infant, which impaired his walking-ability. All of these – both physical and psychological problems - could have potentially never …show more content…
For example, within “Rewriting the Code of Life” by Michael Specter, he told of how the town of Nantucket had a growing problem with the spread of Lyme’s disease (3). Lyme’s disease is a tick-borne
Mr. Pinker’s editorial was over the new technique of CRISPR-Cas9. This technique allows one, relatively cheaply and easily, to go through a genome, target certain undesirable genetic sequences, cut those sequences out, and implant a new genetic sequence of ones choosing. While this sounds amazing at first, and something that Mr. Pinker wants us to believe is as simple as that, the truth of the matter is, that it is not.
Mr. Pinker starts off his editorial stating that everyone has “had a friend or relative who has died prematurely or endured years of suffering from a physical or psychiatric disease” (2). He continues by stating, “Just imagine how much happier you would be if a prematurely deceased love one were alive, or a debilitated one were vigorous…” (2). This particular part actually did draw a response from me, where I began to think of my late grandfather. He developed Alzheimer’s later in his life, was a type-2 diabetic, and contracted Lyme’s disease whenever I was an infant, which impaired his walking-ability. All of these – both physical and psychological problems - could have potentially never …show more content…
For example, within “Rewriting the Code of Life” by Michael Specter, he told of how the town of Nantucket had a growing problem with the spread of Lyme’s disease (3). Lyme’s disease is a tick-borne