Pro Genetic Engineering

The beginning of human life

What Simon Oosterman wrote in his letter The Best Solution To Avoid Abortions (July 4) was simply shocking. He takes lead in criticising an editorial of The Times, considering it to be “more emotional than factual and, more seriously, unbalanced” adding that he “is not aware of any civil society where embryos and foetuses are considered and/or treated as persons”.

I don’t want to get too personal but, in reality, it is Mr Oosterman himself who got it all wrong as his letter shows. Just to start with, he has no idea of embryonic biology.

The word “embryo” etymologically derives from the Latin word embryum, meaning “that which grows” and “to swell, be full” (Wikipedia). During the process of embryogenesis, that is, the development of the embryo, a zygote is produced once a sperm fertilises an egg cell. The zygote then undergoes mitotic divisions through the process of cleavage and cellular differentiation and develops. Eight weeks after fertilisation, the embryo is called a foetus. Because of this development, biologists argue that life starts at the moment of conception, that is, from that moment of the fusion of the gametes, an ovum from the mother and a sperm from the father.

So what makes the embryo so unique? Mainly it is its development, which is tremendously interesting in the study of embryology. Following fertilisation, the umbilical cord between mother and child starts forming in just a couple of days. Growth then centres around that point, forming the spine and its cord. In three weeks, the brain and heart start forming. During weeks four and five the brain develops into different areas and it starts functioning. The heart starts beating and blood starts to flow. Some bones, arms and legs start taking shape. Between weeks six and eight, the embryo starts moving. Eyes and hair are formed as well as other essential organs.

As one can see, in the first eight weeks of pregnancy, the human embryo has already developed into something more than just “a clump of a few living cells”, as Mr Oosterman defined it. Evidently, it is a human life, which moves undergoing development. I therefore cannot understand how some people are capable of legitimising the destruction of this human life. What is more alive than a moving human with a body, with eyes and hair, with a beating heart and with flowing blood? And this is just the first eight weeks of pregnancy! I cannot see why we should not consider it as a person when it is as alive as any grown adult. Is there some kind of dividing line that distinguishes a person from a non-person?

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I doubt that it matters since if Moore’s law holds up, humans will be replaced by robots.

Currently a human brain has 500 trillion connections and a computer has 100 million transistors so in effect a human is one million times more intelligent and complex than computers.

However, according to Moore’s law, computers double in size and complexity every two years. Robots are advancing at about the same rate as computers

1 million is 2^20; Therefore, if Moore’s law hold up in 40 years robots and computers will be equal in intelligence and complexity of the human brain. And at that time robots can do all the tasks that humans do so humans will not need to work.

20 years later, assuming Moore’s law is valid computers and robots will be 1000 times more complex and intelligent than humans and humans will be unable to comprehend what they are doing for our benefit. They will design themselves and as each generation becomes more complex, evolution will take over and they will do their own thing using only a tiny fraction of their output to care for and take care of humans.

However, humans will no longer rule because humans will lack the intelligence. Chickens don’t rule humans because humans are far more intelligent. The same reasoning will apply to humans and super intelligent robots. They will do what is best for us but likely humanswill not agree.

They will then go to the stars and populate the galaxy. The earth and humans will just be a zoo for their entertainment. As they lose interest, our species will die.

Point out the all domesticated animals and plants are the result of selective breeding which is a form of genetic engineering. That is, genetic engineering can be defined as the purposeful (to humans) selection of genes that are passed to the next generation. You can also point out the human sexual selection is also a form of genetic engineering because it also determines which genes are passed on. Of course, sexual selection is done by all animals, not just humans.

You can also point out the great success of human insulin created by bacteria in treating diabetes. Also, human growth hormone is produced by bacteria to treat infantile dwarfism. Both of these were created by Genentech.

Here and now, contemporary science and technology in museums and science centres : proceedings of a conference held at the Science Museum, London, 21-23 November 1996

Pro-Life, Defending the Culture of Life Against the Culture of Death

An introduction to genetic engineering

Genetic Engineering, Principles and Methods

Biology, Today and Tomorrow Without Physiology