Thesis Statement: Outline

- The world that is full with many incurable diseases, o Introduction (Problem)
genetic diseases, and mutated genes, people are o What is the problem with the world
driven to fight and find other solution  Diseases
- People are trying to make a better world through  Genetic diseases
the knowledge (technologies)  Mutated genes
o In vitro fertilization o What did we do to tackle the problem
o DNA modification  Cyborg
o Sperm sorting  Technologies (speculation)
o Tissue Engineering  DNA modification
- Fighting the boundary of nature  Savior siblings
o Unclear about the effect / result of o What are the effect with the world
crossing the boundary of nature  Moral
- Affect and Consequences  Humanity
o Moral  Conscience
o Conscience  Society
o Society  Future
o Humanity o Relate the effect and the problem and also
o Future the solution that we are trying to do
- Discussion o Argument (are we crossing the
o Whether it’s actually bad or good boundaries of nature by abusing the
o What are we gonna do about it knowledge and also technology that we
o Have we do something about it use)
o How have we been conscious or ignorant o Conclusion
about the problem in the world.

Paul Davies once says, “Science is knowledge and knowledge is power –

power to do good or evil.” We do lives in the twelfth centuries where there are many
developments and researches about how to make the world a better place to live, a
place where there are no diseases and problems. People yearn for a perfect world.
Therefore, human beings are motivated on expanding their knowledge. With the
problem that humanity is facing right now, such as genetic diseases, mutated genes,
incurable diseases, and fertility, researchers and scientist are driven to explore the
power of technology. We have heard about the technologies such as in vitro
fertilization (IVF), DNA modification through CRISP, and tissue engineering (stem
cells). Even though we are living in a world that there is no physical war, but the
developments and researches that humanity are doing at this moment could be
indicated as declarations of war towards the work of nature. We are in a war with
the nature. Humanity is trying to fight against the nature and the fate of human
beings. However, we all learned that through the Newton’s third law of motion,
where there is an action, there would always be a reaction; therefore, there are
always consequences on every actions that are being done. People are driven to do
better and to grow. Nonetheless, is it truly a better life that we are trying to achieve?
Or are humans destroying the world and them selves through the knowledge that
they are chasing? Therefore, people should identify all the technologies that they are
doing right now, such as: IVP, sperm sorting, DNA modification, and tissue
engineering, and how humanities are fighting against their moral, conscience,
humanism, law and order of the nature, and crown them selves as the ruler over
nature.
There are many declarations that humans have made to fight the nature. The
first declaration is by ignoring the moral, conscience and humanism that is shown
through IVF or In Vitro Fertilization. This technology has been used commonly
nowadays, which make people think that this technology is harmless. The purpose
of IVP is to help 7infertility cases that people are facing. 7Smelik in her article
explains the procedure of IVF. She discussed how the process starts with a hormone
therapy in order to produce egg cells at the same time. Then, when the egg cells
matured, it will be monitored and harvested using a hollow needle. After that, it will
be fertilized in a petri dish, and one or two embryos will be put into the uterus. The
other embryos will be kept frozen or disposed. This technology helps marriage
couples to achieve their dream of a family. In other words, IVF gives people hopes.
On the other side, the discovery of IVF is also an open door to other technology such
as sperm sorting and savior sibling. Nature stated that there would be no way that
humanity could fight the infertility, the possibility of not having the right gender for
their children, or even 4sex-linked diseases. However, the scientists and researches
proved the nature wrong. Through the technology and knowledge that people
developed, they found a way to counter those statements. Humanity proves there
are still hopes to overrule the nature. This is indeed humanity first declaration
against the nature.
Even though IVF gives human beings hope for a family that they want, people
do not see the other effects that IVF causes. If we look back to this procedure, the
final step is to keep the embryos frozen or dispose it. However, can we disregard the
other “unchosen” embryos? In the 8article of “What Happens To Extra Embryos
After IVF?,” the author emphasizes that there are consequences that people need to
bear when they decided to do IVF. Through the 8survey that is done, only 20% of the
couples that decided to keep their embryos “frozen indefinitely.” The other options
are donate it for research or to other couple, thawing it, and some of them are still
undecided. However, 8Petok states that undecided is also a decision as the clinic is
the one who is being responsible with the embryos. 8Anne Drapkin Lyerly, a
professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University Medical Center says,
“when you’re pouring your money, your heart, and your soul into creating an
embryo and creating a life, the last thing you want to think about is how you’re
going to dispose of it.” Whether we want to admit it or not, those embryos are alive.
Therefore, the effect of this technology affects our conscience and moral as human
beings. Those who keep their embryos are trying to free themselves from the guilt of
following their own desire to have children and fighting against nature. As a result,
they bear the consequence to pay for the 8embryos to be storage for indefinitely. IVF
does gives hope to many people, but it also ruins people conscience because it
blinded them to achieve their desire without considering other possibility that they
should kill the other “unchosen” embryos. It is clear that the humans’ desires are
driven us to go beyond the boundaries that are set by the nature.
The second declaration of war is by carrying a new law and order to repeal
the nature’s system, and it is reflected through the research and experiment about
DNA modification. 12The purpose of this research is simply to modify and fix the
genetic code (DNA). Through this new founding of technology, people who suffered
genetic disorders or mutated genes could be healed by fixing the 12misplaced letters
in their DNA. This new method and research is discovered and leaded by Chinese
researcher, Junjiu Huang; the technique that they used is called CRISPR. 9,12This
technique is actually used by bacteria to remember, identify, and kill their enemy by
cutting off the specific section of the DNA. Through this new founding technology,
the scientists are trying to cut off the DNA codes that cause the diseases. At this
moment, they are experimenting on abnormal, 9,12non-viable embryos that are
created through in-vitro fertilization; at this moment, their trial focused on the
blood disorder 𝛽-thalassemia. Despite the result that is not satisfying, the possibility
that we could make a genetically modified human is very possible. This is supported
by 9George Daley, a stem cell biologist from Harvard Medical School. He states, “their
study should be a stern warning to any practitioner who thinks the technology is
ready for testing to eradicate disease genes.” This is indeed a very serious warning
against nature.
Nowadays, people are driven with the ambitions of improve and achieve
greater things. The scientists show that through the founding of this modification of
DNA, they hope that they could cure many genetic diseases and help people. Even
though maybe the purpose of this technology is great, but this shows how people do
not accept imperfectness in human beings. The world that is growing to become
better and better expect 13perfection for its residents. Therefore, the competition
between each individuals are prompting us with the ability to fix and patch the
imperfectness that people has. As 5Harraway says in her book, “…we find ourselves
to e cyborg, hybrids, mosaics, chimeras,” people struggle to survive in the world
competition, and these technologies are creating a genetic modified human being; a
creation that people could control, fix, and carve according to their desires.
Nevertheless, it becomes unclear whether human already crossed the boundary of
nature or not. With people are not satisfied with the work of the nature, they try to
produces cyborg that is against the work of Mother Nature. Could we consider those
babies that will be going through the DNA modification as a human being? If we
consider about the future that we will be facing, this technology is taking us to a
world where all the people who live only care about achieving perfection and
disposing imperfection. The world where there will be no grace towards people
with deficiency. Moreover, this issue will also create discrimination towards people.
How? With the technology that we could change and manipulate DNA, 13people from
wealthy background have more chances to have this privilege, yet people who do
not have the capability to purchase this technology will automatically lose. 10Marcy
Darnovsky, a doctor from Center for Genetics and Society in the US, also states that
genetic diseases can actually be prevented through embryo screening techniques.
People are driven with the ideas of finding something spectacular for the world and
ignoring the act that this founding could affect 10ethical issues and the safety of
human beings. Human are planning to overrule the nature by creating a new law
and order of the nature in their own hands. In other words, humanity wants to
improve and transform the world and them selves to more superior. For that
reason, we should question our selves whether this step to fight against the nature
is taking us towards a better future or bringing us to a misery.
The last declaration of war that human state is they want to overrule the
work of the nature by becoming god. One of the actions that indicate this statement
is the research about tissue engineering. Tissue engineering is a technology 14cells
are used to be the donor that will be implanted or expanded in the host. In the
recent 16research in Japan by stem cell biologist, Takanori Takebe, they find a way to
grow a liver buds in an embryonic state from the stem cells that are taken from
human skins. At this moment, 17the scientists also could develop the most
“complicated structures” of an organ, which is the brain. 17Only needing the
embryonic stem cells or adult skin cells, brain and its spinal cord could be created
through this technology. Basically, “the cells were able to grow and organize
themselves into separate regions of the brain, such as the cerebral cortex, the retina,
and rarely, and early hippocampus, which would be heavily involved in memory in a
fully developed adult brain,” states by Gallagher. On other words, scientists could
create an organ of a human beings that are only could be created by nature. The
purpose behind the creation of this brain is to help the diseases such as
schizophrenia or autism. However, the overall purpose of making organs is for
people who need organ transplant and could not find the right donor. On this
twelfth century, human could create things that used to be created only by nature.
This last technology that shows the declaration of the war with the nature is
actually based upon a great purpose that give people hope when they want to find
organ transplants. However, we do not think about the other effect of this new
founding. 7This technology makes the boundaries in traditional binary ways blurred
as the growth of postmodernism challenge human being to think beyond what we
have right now. As the work of the nature is prevented, the population of human will
be unbalanced since the natural elimination is also prevented. On the other side, as
people try to prevent death and prolong the life of human, they also start to place
them selves above the nature. Human become their own god. Moreover, tissue
engineering is creating an organ out of stem cell. This indicates that human could
create another human out of cells. Therefore, it is not only a 5hybrid of technology
and human being, but it is a complete robot that is created as a deceit of human.
With human placed themselves as their own god, this creates a big question about
the line within passing the boundaries of the nature. As a result, the argument
whether people still need the work of the nature or not comes out. There is no
dependency from human to nature anymore. Thus, if nature is prevented to do its
jobs, then people are playing God.
In conclusion, human are declaring their war against nature. Firstly, people
are being ignorance to the effect of the technology to their own moral and
conscience. Human only want to follow their own desires and overlook the
consequences of their action. They are acting indifferent towards the consequences
of what to do with the embryos that are not chosen through In Vitro Fertilization.
Secondly, human beings are trying to revoke the law and order of the nature where
people are created with many flawlessness and imperfectness. People want to
achieve perfection, and they are trying to create a world where those deficiencies of
human being could be mold and sculpt. Humanity wants to create an ideal world
where they could not tolerate inadequacy, a world without mercy and grace
towards imperfection. Thirdly, human beings play as God and take over the work of
the nature as they could create something that the nature could only create before.
Therefore, people already crossed the boundaries of the nature where the work of
the nature is not needed anymore. There are two possible chance of the post
modernism through technologies.; it is either it lead humanity for a better future or
the destruction of human beings. However, there is no way for us to have a straight
line between good and bad. Thus, we should raise our awareness towards all of the
chances, whether it is beneficial or destructing, so that we could prevent the
destruction of the human being. It is not a simple matter that we should overlook
because even if we want to ignore the consequences, the problem will not go away.
In my opinion, technologies are indeed a knowledge that could lead us to have
power over nature. However, most of the time people are abusing this power for
their own benefit in order for them to achieve their desires. As a result, the
technologies that are created to be a helping hand for humanity end up destroying
the moral, conscience, humanism, and the nature it self. For that reason, it is a
challenge for us whether we want to ignore these problems or open our eyes and be
conscious about this bomb that is ready to self-destruct ourselves. Be ready! The
time is still ticking.

o Whether it’s actually bad or good

o What are we gonna do about it
o Have we do something about it
o How have we been conscious or ignorant about the problem in the world.

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