As a sophomore, I take Biology for my science class. This unit we are learning about something I find extremely interesting; ourselves. We are looking into a human's DNA. So far, we have learned about the different base pairs, the shape, size, and amount of DNA in a person. I was already fascinated. But then my teacher told our class that a group of scientists decided to figure out an entire human's DNA sequence. That was even more cool to me.
At the time this was happening, people were worried. What would they do with this information? How will they use it? Will it be used for good or bad? How will this change our lives? All these, and many more, questions were asked about the experiment. It was extremely controversial, but the scientist's pushed on. 13 years later, they had decoded an entire human! That is crazy. A few centuries ago, people didn't even know DNA existed. After finding out that this even happened, a fact that I was completely oblivious to, I then was told, you can now go online and find out of your own DNA sequence!
Some people say that this is bad. They argue that it could be used for things like choosing your baby's eye color before he or she is born which could lead to situations like Brave New World, and we all know how that turned out. I think the fact that choosing your baby's traits before he or she is born is a remote possibility, is amazing! I don't know if I would want to learn about my own DNA. On one hand, why not? It's me! I should know as much about me as possible! But on the other hand, if I found out I am destined to die by the age of 25 from some horrible infection, that would be devastating. I don't think I would be able to fully enjoy my life with that hanging over my head at all times. Do you think you would want to know everything about your own DNA? And do you think that it's a positive or negative thing that we figured out a person's entire DNA sequence?
image credit : http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/23andMe_logo.svg/2000px-23andMe_logo.svg.png
At the time this was happening, people were worried. What would they do with this information? How will they use it? Will it be used for good or bad? How will this change our lives? All these, and many more, questions were asked about the experiment. It was extremely controversial, but the scientist's pushed on. 13 years later, they had decoded an entire human! That is crazy. A few centuries ago, people didn't even know DNA existed. After finding out that this even happened, a fact that I was completely oblivious to, I then was told, you can now go online and find out of your own DNA sequence!
Some people say that this is bad. They argue that it could be used for things like choosing your baby's eye color before he or she is born which could lead to situations like Brave New World, and we all know how that turned out. I think the fact that choosing your baby's traits before he or she is born is a remote possibility, is amazing! I don't know if I would want to learn about my own DNA. On one hand, why not? It's me! I should know as much about me as possible! But on the other hand, if I found out I am destined to die by the age of 25 from some horrible infection, that would be devastating. I don't think I would be able to fully enjoy my life with that hanging over my head at all times. Do you think you would want to know everything about your own DNA? And do you think that it's a positive or negative thing that we figured out a person's entire DNA sequence?
image credit : http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/23andMe_logo.svg/2000px-23andMe_logo.svg.png