Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are present throughout our world. The most common form of GMOs are found in our daily food supply. These foods are modified with GMOs in order to grow larger, faster, or even to be more nutritional. The discovery of many new and innovative technologies for genetic engineering have made the ability to create GMOs easier than ever before. These new genetic engineering technologies are not just limited to crops, lab rats, and insects, but can also be applied to human beings. Genetic engineering could be used in order to cure many different genetic disorders and mutations present in today's society. On the other hand, it could be used to enhance certain human attributes, such as intelligence, appearance, and physical ability. Genetic engineering could also be used on a much larger scale to fix many global issues such as food shortage and alternate energy sources. There are many different articles, ideas and research on the issue of ethics and how these new technologies should be used such as, "Synthetic Biology and Conservation of Nature: Wicked Problems and Wicked Solutions," by Kent Redford, William Adams, and Georgina Mace, "A Prudent Path Forward for Genomic Engineering and Germline Gene Modification," by David Baltimore and contributors, and "Genetically Engineering Almost Anything," by Tim De Chant and Eleanor Nelsen, provide evidence for a need to set guidelines and regulations for these new technologies. Although there is currently a strong opposition for specific uses of genetic engineering, the possible health, global, and individual possibilities are too revolutionary for the technology to be misused or not given a chance to reach its full potential.

Genetic engineering is used to ultimately change an organism's DNA sequence specifically to remove or add certain traits. Being able to disable genes is an important part of genetic engineering because it means that scientists are able to undo a modification to an organism or disable a gene to test what it codes for. A DNA sequence or gene codes for specific proteins. These proteins are vital in the same way certain ingredients are needed in a particular recipe. By using genetic engineering it can become possible to change the different proteins DNA codes for. With recent advances in the field of genetic engineering, it is possible to go above and beyond creating individual genetically altered plants, but to edit a whole species genome. A genome is all the different genetic material that makes up an organism. Each organism's genome contains all the information to build, create, stabilize and maintain life. Genetically changing an organism for a new or advanced trait is called genetic enhancement. Unfortunately, decreasing global biodiversity is leading to a rise in concerns for preserving the natural world. One of the most promising solutions for this situation is the use of new genetic engineering technology in order to enhance organisms and address human needs. This solution is well known as synthetic biology. Genetic engineering of humans could be used to cure numerous genetic disorders, give people desirable physical traits, or even increase intelligence of the human brain. These are all theoretical applications, but the possibilities are simply endless.

One of newest most promising technologies is CRISPR-Cas9 which enables unprecedented precision in the deletion and addition of DNA sequences. Before the discovery of CRISPR-Cas9, other gene editing techniques were extremely expensive, time consuming, and very unpredictable. CRISPR-Cas9 can be used not just as a tool to edit a single individual, but that direct individual's offspring as well; thus it is known as a genome editing tool. This includes the ability to edit humans or even the entire human genome. One of the reasons this technology is so revolutionary is because of gene drives. These gene drives allow all the modified genes to bypass natural selection. In "Genetically Engineering Almost Anything," an article published by PBS, gene drives are described as, "They [gene drives] essentially let us exploit evolution to force a desired gene into every individual of a species" (De Chant and Nelsen). The ability to force genes into further generations comes from the engineering of an organism's reproductive cells or it's ("germline"). The CRISPR system is so powerful that it could be the solution to many health and global problems present in our world.

One of the easiest, simple, direct, and effective uses of genetic engineering in humans is the ability to cure genetic disorders. An online article about CRISPR-Cas9 states, "The development has been hailed as a milestone in medical science because it promises to revolutionize the study and treatment of a range of diseases, from cancer and incurable viruses to inherited genetic disorders such as sickle-cell anemia and Down syndrome" (Bailey). Using the CRISPR-Cas9 editing tool could not only help cure certain diseases present in a person's body, but it could ultimately eliminate the genetic disorder from being passed down to further generations. The use of genetic engineering to help cure diseases and disorders is known as gene therapy. Gene therapy would is performed by removing the DNA sequence causing the illness in an individual and replacing it with new, healthy, resistant DNA.

Another way of using genetic engineering to cure diseases is the ability to spread prevent the spread of illnesses. An example used by many scientists is Malaria, a parasitic virus carried by mosquitos. The theory behind eliminating Malaria is to disable the gene sequence used to code the Malaria virus. Kevin Esvelt, a postdoc at Harvard University and spearhead of using deleterious genes to fight Malaria, says, "If everything were to work perfectly, deleterious traits could sweep through populations of malaria-carrying mosquitoes in as few as five years, wiping them off the map" (De Chant and Nelsen). The elimination of the Malaria would have many global and economic repercussions, "Each year, the [Malaria] disease kills over 200,000 people and sickens over 200 million more ...  The direct costs of treating the disease are estimated at $12 billion, and the economies of affected countries grew 1.3% less per year" (De Chant and Nelsen). Not only would eliminating the Malaria virus be saving lives but boosting the global economy as well. The disabling of the Malaria virus in this way would be a large scale use of genome engineering.

Large scale genome editing could be used to solve many global issues other than curing or eliminating diseases. It can be used to modify plants to produce more food or be more tolerant to environmental factors such as temperature or water. Creating these new genetically modified organisms for human needs is known as synthetic biology. In a scientific journal by Kent Redford, William Adams, and Georgina Mace claims that "many of the major global problems, such as famine, disease and energy shortages, have potential solutions in the world of engineered cells" (Kent et al 1). The ability to combat these issues would create a more united and prosperous global society. Genetic engineering can go beyond the medical field and curing diseases, and be used to solve global issues plaguing today's society. Another example of large scale genome editing of humans is to reduce size or height because "Human ecological footprints are partly correlated with our size" (Liao et al 208). A change in human size would reduce the amount of food consumption because the more body mass a person has the more nutrients and energy they need to maintain their body mass. 

The most controversial and potential use of genetic engineering comes from the ability of genetically enhancing humans. Some of the potential abilities are humans with greater intelligence, physical strength, endurance, or longer life spans, but in reality the possibilities are endless. The possibility to create these "superhumans" poses a dilemma between what attributes would be beneficial to the human genome. Mark Coeckelbergh, a professor of philosophy of technology at the University of Vienna, focuses on the engineering of the human genome and classifies modifications as essential and desirable. When it comes to choosing what to add to the human genome Coeckelbergh says, " ... we have to reflect on how we want to shape our lives, our societies, and ourselves as humans and as individuals" (Coeckelbergh, 92). He suggests that it is time to rationalize what traits would be beneficial to humans before it is too late.

Desired traits is the main point of controversy in the field of genetic enhancement. Scientist fear parents will begin genetic engineering to choose their children's appearance, intelligence, and physique, " ... the prospect of so-called "designer babies", has led to it being made illegal in Britain and many other countries" (Bailey). Designer babies is a term used to describe the children of the future if parents had the opportunity to choose what traits their child would have. Countries fear the possibility of genetically engineering humans because they do not know the potential of these new technologies. So this is why countries like Britain have banned the testing of genetic modification on human embryos. Many articles argue that being able to edit what society perceives as imperfections is selfish and goes against of human nature. Professor of Philosophy in the Biomedical Sciences, Timothy Murphy, defines a change in human nature as " ... an effect would have to show up in millions if not billions of people to register as a change in nature" (191). So, the belief that a change in human nature could occur from genetic engineering is possible, but highly unlikely in any near future. Murphy then gives an example of genetic engineering humans to have capabilities that are already in the gene pool, " ... genetic tinkering produced hundreds of hyper-intelligent people able to learn languages and tackle advanced mathematics effortlessly. These capacities are not unknown in people already, so in a sense geneticists would not be creating anything new in kind" (Murphy 191). By making an uncommon trait such as hyper-intelligence wouldn't be a change in human nature because it already exist in humans. It would just be making a trait more common among a population. Murphy then states, "Moreover, the number of individuals produced this way in my example, hundreds of people  --  would represent a minute fraction of the world's people, hardly a palpable alteration in the ordinary give and take of human social life." (Murphy 191). If such a trait as hyper-intelligence or height would to be genetically engineered in to humans the amount of genetically altered humans would not be enough to cause a change in human nature.

Genetic engineering has endless possibilities to offer, but some of its potential could be used in corrupt ways. Jennifer Doudna, co-founder of the CRISPR-Cas9, said " ... global pause in any clinical application of the CRISPR technology in human embryos, to give us time to really consider all of the various implications of doing so." It is incredibly important if the co-founder of one of the most revolutionary technologies in genetic engineering is calling for a discussion to determine how this technology is used. She knows if there is not a consensus for how to use genetic engineering, then it will fall victim to its worst applications.

