Genetic engineering

Most people may believe that administering genes to a sick person to cure a disease is perfectly fine. But they might be less sure about extending gene therapy so that it changes people's offspring. After all, by genetically engineering individuals, many serious illnesses could be wiped off the face of the earth. However, people could become forgetful and not take their gene drugs. This could then cause disease to return. (Economist 1994).
             Humans may already be on the path to change the very nature of nature. On June 26, 2000, scientists and the Human Genome Project announced that they had completed a working draft of a genetic blueprint for a human being, although many details sill need to be filled in before scientists can build a human from scratch.
             Sequencing the human genome requires identifying 3.2 billion chemical "letters" located on the 46 coiled strands of DNA, found in nearly every human cell. While researchers now know the order in which DNA is arranged on the chromosomes, they haven't identified those chemical "letters", which contain the instructions for making the proteins that comprise the human body.
             While the implications for longevity, health insurance and discrimination of this achievement have grabbed media attention, the ramifications for the environment, both good and bad, haven't.
             Silver believes that by around 2010 parents will be able to genetically ensure their babies won't grow up to be obese or alcoholic, and by 2050 they"ll be able to insert an extra gene into single-cell embryos within 24 hours of conception to make babies resistant to AIDS. It is already possible to insert foreign DNA into mice, pigs and sheep, but due to technical obstacles they haven't yet been able to successfully do the same for humans. At this point in human knowledge, it could lead to mutations, so scientists are developing techniques to avoid that. (Deneen 2001).