Genetic Enhancement on the Human Genome
The debate on whether human genetic engineering should be researched and used as the main alternative solution to disease have been going on since the creation of the
"human genetic engineering" phenomenon. The ethical question is clear: should money be invested in human genetic engineering and should we research it at all, even if it is formally criticized by all monotheistic religions? The ethical principles in conflict are beneficence (people with fatal diseases could be cured) and non­maleficence
(undermines the will of God, according to religious groups and in addition, there is no guarantee of successful results). My stance on this debated topic is that human genetic engineering should not be funded or researched, as there is no 100% guarantee that it will be successful, and in addition, I am a very religious person, and in my opinion, the body that a person has is a gift of God, and it should not be changed in any ways.
However, there are still thousands of people with fatal diseases who have no hope for surviving, and human genetic engineering could serve as the only hope for them. There are many sides that can be affected either positively or negatively if human genetic engineering is funded and researched, however, the major stakeholders are primarily the government of US and private companies who fund all the experiments, people with fatal diseases who hope for any type of cure., and the science in general, because if human genetic engineering will be proven beneficial, it will be a catalyst for further innovations in science.
The formal definition of genetic engineering given is “the directed alteration of genetic material by intervention in genetic processes”. Stated in another way, it is a scientific alteration of the structure of genetic material in a living organism. There are many different methods in genetic engineering, but the goal of all the methods is to manipulate the genetic material (DNA) of the cells in a living organism in order to either change it hereditary traits or to produce biological products. Genetic engineering techniques have been experimented with in many different areas including in bacteria, naturally produced drugs, plants, livestock, and laboratory animals. Much of the processes dealing with genetic engineering are still in the experimental stages. As a result of this, it is required that most genetically engineered products get approval from

specific U.S. governmental agencies such as the FDA. Genetic engineering has only become possible and more understandable very recently. Since scientists have been able to map out most of the gene locations in DNA, they have discovered ways to manipulate the genes. It is a very serious and controversial matter because it raises many ethical, legal, and moral issues, especially in dealing with genetic engineering in human beings. There are generally three methods used in the manipulation of human genes and they are cloning, somatic cell manipulation, and human germline manipulation. Very basically, cloning is creating exact copies of an organism's DNA and creating a new organism with this same DNA. The new organisms will be physically identical to the original organism. Somatic cell manipulation is simply injecting new genes into somatic cells in order to cure a disease such as hemophilia. Germline manipulation is altering the genes in sex cells that are passed onto offspring, so that the offspring will possess certain specific characteristics. From the descriptions of these few processes, it can be seen why genetic engineering has become such a controversial issue. Genetic engineering deals with the very intricate, orderly, processes of human life. Genetics is so complex that it is extremely risky to be getting too far into the engineering without knowing the exact results of the actions. Unfortunately, experimentation is the only way to discover some of the