Is genetic engineering ethical right Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Is genetic engineering ethical right - Essay Example Ethics is concerned with what is right or what is wrong. Defining ethics for stem cell research is quite challenging. Researchers and scientists have been focusing on the risks of the stem cell research and any issues and concerns that are raised by the general society. Some researchers claimed that they do not know exactly where to draw the line regarding ethics in stem cell research when scientists organized a panel to discuss the ethical issues that may arise in this field (Nathan, 2006). Situational ethics depend on the situation of something at a given time and applying the moral principles to what has been done to determine whether it is right or wrong. Situational ethics do not have adherence to specific rules and is based on the greater good. The person has to do what is right morally to achieve the goals of situational ethics. However, there are some things which are deemed good but they are wrong in some ways. This makes such things to be rejected by some people despite agr eement that they have sustainable solutions. For example, the stem cell research is widely accepted by all people. However, the source of the stem cells is considered wrong as it increased immorality (Oxford Dictionaries, 2013). On the other hand, Utilitarianism ethics which are also known as consequential ethics are based results of an action. If the consequences are good, then the consequences are morally right but when the consequences are bad, then the act is termed as morally wrong. In the stem cell research, the use of blastocysts as source of stem cells leads to death of the expected child. As it is widely believed, the life of a person starts immediately the sperm fuses with an ovum. As such, when a blastocyct is used, the embryo that would have grown to be fetus and a child is killed (Sinnott-Armstrong, 2012). Stem cell research can change the medical field dramatically, by providing cure for genetic diseases but has been faced with a number of situational and consequential ethical issues which have to be addressed to maximize on the benefits of this field. Embryonic stem cell research is based on undifferentiated cells in the blastocysts. This is a round ball like structure which is formed immediately after fertilization of the egg by the sperm. Its formation starts in the fifth day after fertilization when the zygote has settled on the wall of the uterus. Blastocysts are made up of cells which are to form all the parts of the body during the pregnancy. As such, the cells are differentiating at a very high rate. Since most of the cells are not differentiated, they can be used by scientists and researchers to form any part of the body. The fact that there are many undifferentiated cells that can be obtained from a single blastocyct makes the scientists and researchers to prefer them for stem cell research. Blastocysts for obtaining stem cell research are obtained in several ways. One, scientists and researchers are said to have agreements with abortio n clinics. The agreement is for the clinics to surrender viable blastocysts to the scientists and researchers within a given period of time. In this case, when the clinics come across aborted embryos that would be good candidates for obtaining stem cells, they store them and pass them to the stem cell research laboratories for obtaining the cells. The situational ethical question here is whether it is morally right to take