As I was reading A Brave New World, I found the advanced medical technology fascinating. I do not think that anyone can say that it is not amazing that doctors are able to pick and choose the outcomes of the physical characteristics for their baby or that doctors can keep the old young until the age of sixty (found in Chapter 7).
The more I thought about it, the more it made me realize how close we are to achieving such tasks in the world we live in today. If doctors today can produce the amount of skin necessary for a skin draft from a small amount of skin cells, create a functioning organ from stem cells, and even fully clone a sheep, then there is no telling what they will be able to do in a few more years or decades. This idea terrified me and intrigued me at the same time. If the technological advances from A Brave New World were to be achieved in reality, there is no doubt that many will be alleviated from the pain caused by old age and many other burdens, but at what price? Will we give up the things that make us human like actually being born or old age just for pleasure? Although I aspire to be a doctor, I do have to say that because of the possibility that such medical achievements can make us less human that there should be a limit to how far these achievements can go. What is your opinion on this? Can there a such a thing as too medically advanced?
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I was very torn apart when I was thinking about this topic. I have come to the conclusion that medical achievements should not be limited.
ReplyDeleteI don't think defying death, avoiding old age, or choosing the outcome of physical characteristics makes us less human. This, of course, does not apply to everyone because some of us think differently. What we think defines what makes us less human. For example, during the Roman Empire gladiators fought for the entertainment of people. You or others could think that they are savage or inhumane. The audience and spectators would probably not have thought that. They probably thought they were quite normal, and, of course, just as human as you or me. So, what makes us less human really comes down to what you think. If you grew up in an environment where killing was natural and maybe even used for entertainment would you have thought, "This makes us less human and more savage." I believe the same goes for medical achievements where defying death and old age is possible. You may think it will make us less human, but what happens when such marvels roll along? If it makes people happy, they will probably accept it, and if people accept it then it will become a norm. Once it becomes norm then they will think they are still as human as before. Humans are pleasure seeking creatures in one way or another. They will give up things "just for pleasure". I think the thought that we as humans are like this is quite harrowing.
I just wanted to add that we aren't becoming less human if such advances in medicine were to be made and used. We would simply be changing the definition of what makes us human. If what makes us human includes looking young or avoiding death, then so be it.
ReplyDeleteJimmy, I don't quite understand what you're saying. By bringing up the Roman Empire, it seems to me that you're discussing the morals of human beings, rather than what it means to be a human biologically.
ReplyDelete"If what makes us human includes looking young or avoiding death, then so be it."
This sentence sounds nice as an intangible idea, but it doesn't make sense to me as anything other than pure fiction. It isn't human to avoid aging and death. Would you say that a person created at twenty years old (not born, but created at that age) and forever appearing twenty is a human? There's a limit to humanity, and avoiding what makes us human isn't living. It's a false interpretation of the human life.