SRL Archive - Science

So I've a one page paper to write for biology, and we've been talking about biotechnology and what not, so, obviously, the topic of genetically modifying humans is a big topic. We watched Gattaca (I saw it last year, and I was super excited to see it this year because it was good, but then I remembered that I didn't much care for Gattaca, but I loved The Island. Damn biology movies.. :< so confusing..), and that has nothing to do with this topic. ^^

So anyway. The question I have to write about is:

"Is perfection possible? Do we want a perfect society?"

I'm pretty dandy with the possibility of it (it's not possible), but I need some arguments for the second question (because I see no logic in even striving for impossibility). Anyone who would want a perfect society and have reasons why?

:3 Thankies.

The Nazi's attempted to create a "pure" or perfect race. Even America and Europe had "eugenics" programs to eliminate the genetically undesirable.

It's one of the biggest stains on science in the history of man.

As for a "society" being uniform, that's not desirable. One of the biggest problems for endangered species is their LACK of genetic diversity.

There are certain dog breeds and strains of mice that have been purposely bred to select for certain desirable characteristics. But overall, they are all somewhat defective. Some large dogs have brittle bones. Some are just plain stupid. Most genetically uniform strains of mice do not give birth to very large litters. If you want to produce a lot of mice you need to breed them to an outbred "mutt" strain during the process.

There's also a lot of arrogance in the belief that we COULD design a genetically perfect person. Diversity is what allows for new combinations of genetic traits to be tried and tested. Creating a uniform population would forever STOP progress, which is exactly the opposite of the stated goal.

Listen to the Dr. ^^, he knows his stuff.

:p I already made most of those points (except genetic variety causing diseases to be theoretically unstoppable). ^^ But in the movie Gattaca, they also, somehow, modify the DNA in humans to not have diseases/infections.. :p So I'm not sure if I'm supposed to think of this question in a way that we could have superhumans or something of that sort.

Oh, actually I didn't talk about the well known Nazi eugenic testing (along with the lesser spoken-of American testing (and Japan, which we then took the information from, and let their equivalent to Nazi Germany's Mengele go free and live his life as he pleased without persecution of any sort.. which disgusts me..)). ^^ Thanks, Tara.

We had a debate project in my Biology class. The group I dealt with had to do with analyzing the zygote, and fixing it's genetic problems. There was a for and against side; I was obviously on the 'for' side.

noidea, you were for making a perfect race?

From: i luffs yeww
noidea, you were for making a perfect race?

No. I was for eliminating diseases such as sickle cell anemia and cystic fibrosis. Editing a zygote's DNA at an early stage allows for mitosis to do all the 'dirty' work: multiplying the gene and making new cells, etc.

Would that even be possible? :p Because the zygote is a zygote for virtually no time at all, as far as I know. So it would have to be instantly manipulated with at time of fertilization, right?

I think Tarajunky said it all.
To be honest, the question is so vague there is nothing to be said. What is perfection? you known? My best recommendation is to find a book on genetic engineering, and find some sources from journals on the back of the book to support your points.

One glaring obvious point against perfection is functional interference…
this means that being good in one environment is necessarily bad in another condition. For an example. Say in arm wrestling, short arms can generate more force. But in boxing, longer limbs can achieve higher velocity and more momentum. This is the concept of functional interference. Being good at one thing makes you bad at another. Having thinner bones allow you to run faster, but it becomes easier to break. Having thinner lung membranes allows higher oxygen input, but you will likely get hemorrhages. Having armor gives you protection but makes you smaller and reproduce later…

If human beings can reach perfection, I assume that people are no longer coupling sex with reproduction. Sex (the recombination of genes) was never needed for reproduction in the first place. To reach perfection you cannot rely simply on cellular mechanisms.

Btw, eugenics experiments will never result in perfection. Any process acting on a phenotypic level is bound to fail. The recessive traits will be hidden and they will form such a large majority of the population that killing all those who have recessive traits for diseases would mean removing the entire population. (i.e. sickle cell anemia or cystic fibrosis) What I just said is not very clear, so for example in sickle cell anemia say 10% of your population are homozygous for it, then it will have more than 40% who have the genes for it, now take another disease say cystic fibrosis, say 2% have it, about 10% will have the recessive form. Now if you combine the 2 and eliminate everyone who are recessive for these 2 disease you are removing a substantial amount of the population. That was only 2 diseases, now if you want to remove 50 diseases…you get my point.

To strive to go for anything - either perfection or imperfection - would be pathetic. As humans, everyone has different wants. Because of those wants, no one would be able to agree as to what perfection would be, and to allow one person to do so would be ludicrous. Past that, you would have to iron out the want to be different from our genetics - after that, what's the point of being human?

Had to do something similar to this last year in school, had to watch gattaca and do a similar topic to you.

I just wrote about how hitler failed, wrote about the book animal farm and how they tried to create a perfect society and in the end got the exact opposite and how gattaca is a "perfect" society and how Vincent managed to get in unnoticed, showing flaws in perfection

E: Also talk about how Irene is "valid" but has a heart condition