Response to Ultimate Therapy

Response to Ultimate Therapy: Commercial Eugenics in the 21st Century

I believe Jeremy Rifkin makes several good points regarding the addition of commercial eugenics into the 21st century and their effects on our society. His entire argument and how deleting certain genes could eventually lead in the alienation of imperfect individuals but at the same time could help several people with diseases creates a highly ethical debate. The question of who should decide how many deletions of genes is enough or which genes deserve to be deleted and which ones don’t also arises. Since nothing like these questions has occurred before, no one can definitively know their effects until the decision has been made. One of the most disturbing points Rifkin makes in his article is that these technologies are currently in use around the world and these questions will have to be answered by our generation in the upcoming future. I, however, look at these scientific advancements with hope believing that we can find some sort of balance between this new technology and our humanity.