The Future Human (part 5)

Genetic engineering may actually be able to solve some of the aforementioned problems that are likely to arise with human cloning. However, genetic engineering itself is a slippery slope that is just waiting to define the future of the human race. Movies like “Gattaca” address a very likely future where genetically modified children will be improved by families that can afford them. It is disturbing that our current law is somewhat vague regarding future restrictions in genetic tampering. Once even one alteration has been made to the human genome, the change is there forever, affecting all successive generations from that child. Today, companies are working on genetically engineering our food, and as usual, law is lagging behind technology, trying to keep up. Growth hormones and other chemicals already exist (as approved by the FDA) in our food and household products and are affecting our children, causing them to enter puberty several years earlier than normal. The course of natural human development has already been altered, and whether genetic manipulation enters the scene under the guise of savior or merely as a supposedly prudent option, we are likely to see it affect our society in profound ways within a few decades. Once it begins, we will have ushered the monster of eugenics into our failing world.