A Not So Perfect World

In recent years, science has provided humanity with the ability to literally design the future generations of its race. New developments in technology have brought humanity to the brink of being able to eradicate genetic diseases and a wide variety of mental disorders, achievements that were only far off dreams a decade ago. And yet despite these seemingly glorious developments as a result of human genius, a not so glorious future is looming over the human race. Despite the arguable benefits of genetic engineering, the threat that it poses to free will is too great to chance.

At first glance, a future without disease, mental retardation, and any other sort of mental illness would seem to be utter bliss. No longer would humanity be a slave to chance during conception; instead each individual would be a set of perfect genes in the eyes of their parents and society, with every new life exhibiting the exact traits desired by their creators. Superficially this would seem to be a golden age for humanity, an era that would allow mankind to elevate itself to God-like status and dominate over every aspect of their environment, including the make-up of their own bodies. But yet, would such a world really be so grand? Is that ultimate power truly something that humanity deserves to wield?

At the core of the western world lays the concepts of individualism and self-determination, and it has been engrained in the minds of most members of western society that they can become whoever they want to be through their own efforts. Naturally one could make the argument that, through genetic engineering, people would be designed to lack diseases and disorders that could limit their ability in the world. Consequently one could argue that because of genetic engineering human beings would be much more capable of achieving their life goals and ambitions. And in a world where human beings knew the limits of morality and playing God, this would hold true. But the intentions of some people have been and always will be flawed, thus destroying the delicate equilibrium of this ideal world.

Unfortunately, as happens with so many great ideas, this perfect world gets thrown into flux when one takes the nature of humanity into account. Initially genetic engineering would probably be used simply to filter out genetic disorders that could be harmful to a child. A few years down the road the industry would probably begin to market services that would also allow parents to design the physical appearance of their child. Next, naturally, would come the engineering of the mind of a new life, determining their level of intelligence, their potential for interest in certain fields, and essentially how they live out their lives. Over the span of a few decades, the concept of free-will would be annihilated. Genetically engineered children would be subject to the desires and feelings that were programmed into them by their parents, eradicating the sense of mystery and wonder that surrounds one’s own life. Now for arguments sake one would have to concede that not everyone in the world would choose this route for their child. But those who could afford to certainly would. After all, who wouldn’t want to have a child that was truly everything that they had hoped for?

To cite one potential outcome of genetic engineering, one could easily look to Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Despite the fact that this book is fictional, the world that he creates is one that could easily be created using the technology available to humanity today. In the futuristic, post-apocalypse world ruled by One State, Huxley has created a realm in which every member of society is engineered for the position that they will fill in life. A person’s size and intelligence is designed so that they can adequately perform their job, but have no hope of achieving anything more in life. From the moment of conception, the fate of every human being on Earth is already determined. In order to repress feelings of discouragement and malcontent at their position in society, all citizens of One State are conditioned to love their social and occupational status. However, as is the case with all man-made systems, there are occasional flaws. One malformed citizen, Bernard, attempts to look beyond the stability of One State and questions the merits upon which it is built, saying: “Yes, ‘Everybody’s happy nowadays.’ We begin giving the children that at five. But wouldn’t you like to be free to be happy in some other way, Lenina? In your own way, for example; not in everybody else’s way” (Huxley 91). Bernard illustrates a fatal flaw in the One State system. Regardless of how “perfect” their system may appear, it’s repression of self-determination prevents people from discovering happiness, which in turn would lead one to question whether or not the citizens are truly happy at all. Though these people live in a world without disability or disease, they are incapable of determining their own fates or discovering their own pleasures in life. Their happiness is but a mask for the torturous existence that they really live.

The ability to play God has been sought by many for centuries, and now lies within the grasp of the entire world. Though the use genetic engineering for the purposes of creating a better, healthier world are noble, the true potential of this technology is much too dangerous to even be toyed with.