There are many similarities between Aldous Huxley's A Brave New World and society in America today. Babies can be produced in laboratories, as well as being conceived naturally. This technology had led to both good and bad effects on each society. Also, a similarity in both societies is the portrayal of the true spirit of each individual. In today’s world, through the means of technology, scientists have discovered new ways to make conception possible for women who are deemed infertile.
Diamond and Sigmundson’s completed a study of a little boy named David who was a twin who lost his penis during a circumcision so at the age of 17 months old he was then raised as a girl named Brenda so that he could feel like he fitted in. The results of this study were that he started showing masculine traits and decided he wanted to be changed back in to a boy. This study supports the biological approach towards gender as it shows that Bruce developed masculine traits because of his biological sex (male). However, David could have learnt these masculine traits during his first 17 months of being male as his gender was resigned after a child starts learning and developing. He could have also picked up some of these traits from his twin brother.
Eugenics is the manipulation of genetics to improve the genetic composition of a population, usually referring to a human population. Eugenics has been around for a long time. When white settlers came to Australia the policy of removing mixed race aborigines came from a eugenics theory that full blooded aborigines were already dying out anyway because of diseases they caught from European settlers and that their population wouldn’t be able to sustain itself. However, in the last 50 years, there have been many new breakthroughs in biological eugenics. From the sequencing of the human genome, published in 2003 to the use of IVF for impregnation, we are only beginning to understand the lengths to which we can take this technology.
For example, Charlie Gordon was the first person to have a brain transplant that tripled an individuals IQ, therefore making him a more successful and intelligent person. This experiment would help people not just like Charlie but others to become more intelligent. The monster on the other hand, was the result of an illegal experiment. He was involved in an experiment that could produce life. He was made from body parts of the dead all sewed up together.
Why can’t we do this today? Well, many experts today know the technique of cloning and are perfecting it every year. Truly, Huxley’s Brave New World is far from today’s society, although scientists have the abilities to clone as in Brave New World. In the novel, it is said that they “…can make one ovary yield us over fifteen thousand adult individuals." The Brave New World has the ability to clone humans at an outstanding rate with every clone a success.
Genes are nearly impossible to describe. Christine Kenneally once said: “There are almost as many metaphors for genes as there are genes.” One of the most attractive metaphors for the human genome has been the blueprint. The blueprint is a very tidy representation of how our genes work in telling our body how to build itself. Our height, health, and mood were determined before we were born and don’t change throughout our lives. Richard C. Francis challenged this theory with the release of his book: Epigenetics: The Ultimate Mystery of Inheritance.
Lucy the Beginnings of Humankind is a novel about the impressive discovery of our ancestors by Donald Johanson and Maitland Edey. This discovery changed the way scientists thought about the origins of humankind. The discovery of Lucy proves that humans evolved from apes millions of years ago. It also provides further evidence that supports the fact that bipedalism preceded increase in brain size in human evolution. Finding 40% of the bones from Lucy was extremely impressive to scientists and especially to a paleoanthropologist because of the simple fact that these bones are over 3 million years old.
President Obama passed a bill when he was elected in office that allows government funding for embryonic stem cell research. Many tax payers were angered at this decision. This was a big step for scientist and hopefully the beginning to find a cure for all diseases. I strongly support embryonic stem cell research knowing it could save someone’s mother, sister, daughter, friend, father, and my aunt’s life. Just think that one life can save
Designer Babies – Like It Or Not, Here They Come By Keith Kleiner (Feb 25th 2009) http://singularityhub.com/2009/02/25/designer-babies-like-or-not-here-they-come/ The texts talks about genetic modification and technologies scientists have achieved so far. Designer babies are created by customisation of the genes, e.g. the choice of the gender and screening for diseases. It talks about the ability to change the colours of hair, eyes, and complexion and equip the baby superior genes for good looks, intelligence, athleticism, and many more. Some people think it is good to be able to genetically modify the genes but other oppose of it.
Friday, 6 April, 2001, 10:59 GMT 11:59 UK Frankenstein fears after head transplant A controversial operation to transplant the whole head of a monkey onto a different body has proved a partial success. The scientist behind it wants to do the same thing to humans, but other members of the scientific community have condemned the experiments as "grotesque". Professor Robert White, from Cleveland Ohio, transplanted a whole monkey's head onto another monkey's body, and the animal survived for some time after the operation. The professor told the BBC's Today programme how he believes the operation is the next step in the transplant world. And he raised the possibility that it could be used to treat people paralysed and unable to use their limbs, and whose bodies,