TED Conversations

Stewart Gault

TEDCRED 30+

This conversation is closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »

Human genetic engineering: Is there any reason why we shouldn't aim to improve ourselves genetically?

what are your views on this?

Topics: genetics
0
Share:

Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.

  • thumb

    Kris Rosvold

    • 0
    May 27 2012: Stewart, It's not fear of the un-known... There's a LONG history of the Law of Unintended Consequences in medicine and in genetics, The "margarine is Good for you" theory proven WRONG over 45 years later. The Thalidomide babies in the 50's and 60's, the new revelations of just how toxic the mercury fulminate is in vaccines, The revelations coming out now about the effects of BPA in food packaging (now BANNED in the EU), the revelations the the mercury in amalgam fillings DOES leach out and IS toxic (after +100 years of use), in mechanical engineering the 1995 Ford Explorer (AKA exploder) the Ford Pinto .... I truly could go on for DAYS on end. The big problem with GE is that we are messing with our own genetic structure, and the genetic structure of our food and, infections both directly and indirectly... All it takes is ONE super-bug... imagine a MERSA bug that can transmit via droplet-spray (sneezing or coughing) and has a 72 hour incubation period.... What I'm really saying is that looking (impartially) at the history of medicine I believe that these folks are just smart enough to do us ALL in. And, looking at that history, this is not an un-reasonable position.
    • thumb

      Stewart Gault 30+

      • 0
      May 27 2012: You're totally right in the sense that yea we could kill everyone with this stuff, sure look at the H5N1 studies big controversy cause they mutated it affect humans. So your biggest is medicine cocking this up and killing the planet, firstly on a historical side, when Jenner first introduced inoculation of smallpox, he unfortunately killed a few people in the process as antiseptics and disinfectants hadn't been invented or understood yet. Also the way bacteria and viruses are evolving to overcome our drugs means that genetic engineering is looking like the only way to keep humans ahead in the microscopic arms race. Also we don't just know the genome, we know, I think, almost what every gene does, so changing something you know logically shouldn't cause something else to happen, for example say, just cause I am, that they made the ginger gene dominant in you so you grew ginger hair, it won't suddenly cause the rest of you to change or create new chemicals in the body. But on the flip side, I can imagine if you changed the genome for muscle size and strength we'd discover that the body ended up respiring too quickly and required too much food to sustain itself and end up killing us. So we've to use logic here. GE crops will solve world hunger it's pretty much fact, they've got potatoes and corns and all sorts of foods to produce higher yields, produce multiple seeds, fertilize themselves, survive in parched landscapes and to withstand extreme heat.

Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.