As time goes on, the world we are living in is changing along with the creatures living on it. If we look at the past, we can see many living beings going extinct or adapting themselves to the changing environment. Even some of them being mutated to survive. Every creature have to evolve at some point to stay alive. If not, that creature is more likely to become extinct.
From the very beginning, we wanted to live more. We tried various kinds of things to find the key of immortality. But can we be immortal? Could we evolve ourselves to live and function more? Can we become ‘superhumans’?
Being a superhuman, you are able to achieve many things easier than other humans, to have much more improved physical properties or to function more than a normal human.
Human body consists of billions of cells. Every and each of these cells have a special function. The structure which contains the password for all cells to work properly is DNA. DNA carries the instructions for the development, growth, reproduction and functioning of all life but what if you change some of the instructions?
Genetic engineers started playing with the structure of the DNA at 1960s. Firstly, they tried giving radiation to cause random mutations on the genetic coat of the plant and to find useful plant variations. In 1990s, first modified food was put on sale which was a tomato with a longer shelf life and nowadays there are super muscled pigs and fast-growing salmons.
Now, we have the technology and the knowledge to modify the human DNA. The thing which enables us to modify the DNA is actually a bacterium. CRISPR which is an archive in the bacteria, stores a part of the DNA of another organism such as virus. When the bacterium interact with the same virus again, a protein called Cas9, matches the virus’ DNA with one of the DNA it has stored before and by doing this it can easily destroy the virus. This technique has been used in killing cancer cells and also it was used in curing HIV.
At some point, people will be able to prevent themselves from cancer just with an easy and cheap immunization. Moreover parents will be able to choose the features of their children (which will be called as ‘designer babies’ after): more muscular, more intelligent and maybe a little bit taller than normal? In which way do you think this improvement will effect the humanity?
In my opinion, these kind of improvements and changes based on human DNA, can be used in both ways. Treating cancer and the other abnormalities caused by the wrong sequence of DNA kind of usements are beneficial for us. But what I am afraid of is using this technology to create superhumans. I am pretty sure that making changes in DNA won’t be so cheap. Therefore the superhumans are mostly going to be the ones who are rich and as a result of this superhuman-human difference, there will be much more discrimination. This discrimination will cause wars among the humans which can also be the end of ‘normal humans’. I think improvements in changing the DNA have to be done for the sake of humanity instead of using it as a weapon or as something which causes diversity among people.
SOURCE:
http://www.stem-cells-news.com/1/crispr-genetic-engineering-will-change-everything-forever/