Genetic engineering is one of the most debatable problems in the modern world. The process of manipulating genes has brought scientists to important discoveries, among which is the technology of the production of new kinds of crops and plants with selected characteristics. Genetic modification also allowed the introduction of new ways of human disease treatment and prevention. However, along with many considerable advantages, specific scientific and ethical questions have arisen, calling into question whether the world is ready for genetic engineering.
This problem is one of the essential themes of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, where biotechnology is the tool for creating flawless individuals as bricks of an ideal society in a perfect new world. In the context of a novel, genetic engineering receives negative evaluation. In this essay, with references to the current discussion among scientists as well as Huxley’s novel, it will be argued that the application of genetic technologies may be beneficial as well as damaging.
The problem of the advantages and disadvantages of genetic engineering is one of the acutest problems in scientific discussion. The attention particularly turned to this question in the light of a dispute in 2018 after the method of genetic modification was first time applied to human embryos. The technology allowed the birth of twins free from HIV, while their father was infected (Rose and Brown 157). The majority of opinions were against the application of the new technology for altering the human body; many arguments were of ethical concern.
However, the question of implementing the new genetic technologies remains ambiguous. It provides help in dealing with health issues and improving agricultural products, and in the future may open the horizons for new possibilities (Zhang et al. 119). Moreover, clinic use of genetic technologies allows to improve the treatment of many health problems; the example of it is supplying diabetes patients with genetically modified insulin.
In the context of this discussion, “Brave New World continues to be the most frequently referenced work of fiction in the genome-editing discourse” (So 216). The novel describes the world seven centuries after the twentieth century, where the World State’s motto is “Community, Identity, Stability” (Huxley 1). The children are not delivered in a usual way but produced in laboratories using various techniques, and later segregated into five castes of different levels, from the top Alpha to the bottom Epsilon.
Thus, everybody is determined to play a particular role in the social system. “What man has joined, nature is powerless to put asunder” (Huxley 21); such a declaration of human power over nature is the new belief of the world where religion and art are eradicated. Society is assumed to be happy, however, instead of utopic “brave new world,” Huxley’s novel appears to be its straight dystopic opposite. It presents the drama of humans who are not able to fit into the distilled “ideal” environment. Genetic engineering, thus, comes to be a part of this negative picture and manifests, instead of progress, one of the most significant human misconceptions.
However, it seems that Brave New World is “often misrepresented as being about the direct genetic engineering of humans (So 318). Indeed, the problem appears only as one aspect of Huxley’s model of the world, the other being the philosophy of consumption and self-indulgence. As it is argued in the novel, “every discovery in pure science is potentially subversive” (Huxley 198). It demonstrates that even in the scientifically constructed world, science is sometimes treated as a possible enemy.
To conclude, it should be argued that, while thinking about the danger, one has not to deny the obvious benefits of genetic engineering. The current discussion is aware of the ambiguous character of this issue. Scientists often refer to Huxley’s Brave New World as a possible adverse scenario of the future, which has to be avoided. Thinking about the progress as a result of new technology should always be aligned with considering diverse aspects of its implication.
Works Cited
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. Random House, 2008.
Rose, Bruce I., and Samuel Brown. “Genetically Modified Babies and a First Application of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR-Cas9).” Obstetrics & Gynecology, vol. 134, no. 1, 2019, pp. 157–162.
So, Derek. “The Use and Misuse of Brave New World in the CRISPR Debate.” The CRISPR Journal, vol 2, no. 5, 2019, pp. 316–323.
Zhang, Chen, et al. “Genetically modified foods: A critical review of their promise and problems.” Food Science and Human Wellness, vol. 5, no. 3, 2016, pp. 116-123.