Pre-Writing
I didn’t do a ton of pre-writing for this paper, but reading the articles and annotations gave me an idea of what I wanted to write about. Classroom discussions also helped me see others’ perspectives on the ethics of CRISPR and these perspectives warped my thoughts on the matter as well. When I started putting together my rough draft, I looked over my homeworks and took some ideas from what I had already written down.
These two annotations helped me choose quotes for my essay and I based my paragraphs on my ideas about the quotes.
Revision
During revision, I took some comments either from my peer review or from Prof. Spain and made changes based on those. There wasn’t a lot that I felt I needed to change, but this post shows one of the revisions I made based on Prof. Spain’s comments. I also ran my essay through Grammarly in case I missed anything grammar related, and made edits based on the suggestions.
Post Reflection: Ethics
When it comes to the ethics of CRISPR technology, I don’t quite know how to feel about it. On the one hand, I think it could be a great thing if it is used to help treat and even cure diseases that negatively impact people’s well-being. On the other hand, I think that this technology could be used in other extremely dangerous ways especially if used by the wrong people. Thinking that there is a type of technology that can change a person’s genetic makeup before or after they’re born is incredibly terrifying in some ways, especially if, as I mentioned before, this technology falls into the wrong hands. I think that if used correctly and by people who understand and can combat the possible harm CRISPR causes then it should be used. However, I do think that people like Josiah Zayner are putting people at risk by making this technology available to people with little knowledge about it. Of course, some fault lies in those buying and using this tech without proper knowledge on it, but I believe that people like Josiah who take advantage of the curiosity of people are at the most fault.
While I personally don’t believe in God, I think that if those who do believe that He intended for everything that has happened to happen, then the technology CRISPR is using was always meant to exist. In this case, whatever we chose to do with the tech will also be in “God’s Plan”. In terms of my own value system, if the technology exists and can be used to improve the lives of others then I believe it should be used. I think there should be conditions for its usage and that only people who understand how it affects humans (or other organisms) should be allowed to administer the treatments using CRISPR.
