The Commited MAY 2015 | Page 52

TED BATMAN COLLEGE / 10-A Should We Really Edit Our Children’s Genomes? Dilba YAVUZ 50 Do you know anything about gene exchange? The birth of a child with genetic disease is often something unexpected. Today, thanks to science we can edit our children’s genomes. We can prevent our children from the diseases even before they are born. But, should we do this? You know every person is born into the world with genetic differences. But if we changed them, if we made them perfect, what kind of consequences would there be? Think about it. Think about a world where so many people have the same appearance. That is not good. There are different results of it, too. If scientists make genome regulation in the future, obviously they will not do it for free. People will have to pay for it and there will be so many people who cannot afford this. So, some people will make use of it and some of them will not. For this reason, there will be discrimination and social stratification in the world. If people only made use of genome regulation to prevent the diseases, that would be a great step in medicine. All death rates would decrease and people would not be suffering. But I think this is not the case. People will want to change their children’s eye colour, hair colour, mouth, nose, etc. So, all the children will be born with the perfect eye, nose, and weight. They will be same and I think this is horrible. We are who we are and our differences make us unique and beautiful. Our defects are part of our personality, and I think we have to keep it this way.