Ashley visits her grandmother, Teresa, in the nursing home every Sunday. Usually, Ashley has to pretend she is just helping out at the home because her grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, does not remember Ashley’s face, but for the past month, Teresa has had no problem recognizing her granddaughter. She has been taking a new medication prescribed by her doctor to help fight the deterioration of brain cells. The medicine has been so effective that Teresa is able to retain much of what she hears or learns. She no longer loses her thought midsentence or forgets her family’s names, faces, or birthdays. While Teresa naps one Sunday, Ashley studies in the rocking chair in the corner. Before she opens her first book, Ashley pulls a pill out of a case in her backpack and takes it. Ashley has the same prescription as her grandmother, but instead of stopping brain cells from deteriorating, the pill boosts her ability to memorize information from her studies. The prescription used to help the elderly sufferer recover can be used to help the young scholar flourish.
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Pills like these are the future of gene therapy. Gene therapy was originally created to fix diseases by repairing mutated DNA, altering existing DNA, or inserting new DNA into a person’s genes. While gene therapy is still only in its primitive states, it has opened a window for speculation of the possibilities of gene enhancement. Instead of just repairing genes, as in therapy, gene enhancement would use the same processes to take healthy genes and maximize their ability. We should take advantage of this knowledge in order to extend the cognitive life of the elderly and maximize the capacity to learn in students, propelling our society into the most mentally advanced civilization possible.
The possibilities of genetic enhancement are already showing themselves through various treatments in gene therapy.
Genetic enhancement in the brain has been experimented with to improve how quickly things can be learned and how long that memory will remain. “Recently researchers have produced smart mice” that have better memories than regular mice, even into old age (Sandel 74). As in Teresa’s case, gene therapy can help fight diseases like Alzheimer’s and other memory ailments. The elderly no longer have to become “crazy old kooks” that do not remember where they put their teeth or if Woodstock is still in going on. While regenerative for the elderly, the same insertion of DNA into a much younger generation would yield students that would remember every lesson they learned in school, never forget what happened in 1492 or 1776, and quickly advance through grades at an expedited rate because they would never have to review previous material. Soon, the world would see a younger generation of professionals practicing medicine or law and performing their jobs perfectly because they remember all of their training. The world would be propelled into the future by researchers and scientists who held a mastery of their subjects.
Some skeptics may argue against genetic enhancement for reasons such as the loss of value of natural talents or the unfairness of who would be able to receive the enhancements. With anyone who had enough money buying enhancements, talents acquired naturally from parents or hard work could lose their worth. Passing tests with perfect scores would become commonplace when all enhanced students no longer had to try to remember facts and figures. If only the rich could afford to enhance themselves, then a gap would be created between the average, unenhanced lower class and the genetically designed upper class.
While these seem like reasonable worries, they are only a small drawback to moving forward. Humans do not all possess the exact same level of talent without enhancement, and some are simply more gifted in an area than others. Every child comes from a different background that influences what is produced. With genetic enhancement, people would have a much higher ability to learn, but it does not completely discredit hard work and determination. Genetically enhancing a few, even if it is only the richest, would benefit society as a whole by allowing discoveries to be made that progress society. Tools are discovered throughout history that help to move society forward and improve the quality of human life. Genetic enhancement is simply another tool that will allow our race to reach its potential.
Works cited:
Sandel, Michael. Human Enhancement. New York: Oxford, 2009. Print.
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