The film this week was a NOVA documentary about the ethics and future of DNA testing. This documentary pairs nicely with a class I’m currently taking, Ethical Issues in Medicine and Science. As my professor in that class has said, technology isn’t automatically ethical. People are required to decide the morally acceptable ways in which to use technology. And often scientists are not the ones best qualified to make those ethical decisions. Lawyers, politicians, representatives of science, and common people must come together to search for the answers. Specifically for genetics the stakes are higher than any other science. As we learn more about how genes control our bodies, it becomes tempting to want to make small modifications to fix genetic diseases before they start. However, once that becomes a reality parents will want to use the power of genetics to modify their babies to have blue eyes or to be tall or to be incredibly intelligent. Genetic engineering is  dangerous tool for which the ethics need to be dealt with quickly. Curing diseases is obviously a good thing, and I think genetic engineering is a good way to provide treatment. But that is where genetic modifications must stop. Using genetics to “treat” unfavorable traits like bad eyesight will probably be possible but can lead to unintended consequences. The elephant in the room when talking about this subject is eugenics and the scary things people will do to make a “perfect” human. Therefore, genetic modifications should be used to treat life threatening diseases, and stop there. Trying to mess with traits people consider unfavorable is far too dangerous to be unregulated.