So I found a certain level of ethical gray area in the obesity thread. Researchers found a way to shut off a gene related to absorbing carbohydrates in mice. It led to the mice having a healthier weight regardless of high Calorie/carbohydrate diets. This may be a miracle with respect to the obesity epidemic, but is it ethical or ideal to be tinkering with the genome in this way?
Think on this. The vast majority of cases of Obesity are preventable by a modification of diet an exercise. We have a wealth of data to support that. So:
- Should we consider altering DNA in humans in order to combat a problem that is already preventable through behavioral changes?
- What are possible unintended consequences of a solution on the genetic level to obesity? Calories are plentiful now, but what if a Malthusian food shortages arise... we might have a population that would require more Calories than we have due to this genetic manipulation.
- What if some one lost a job or money became tight and they could no longer afford the same amounts of food that they were eating before? Can we really imagine people starving to death on a 2000 Calorie diet?
- Are we not trying to force the hand of evolution? Eventually we would find obesity filtered out of our gene pool as more and more people found early deaths. Is a genetic alteration solution better than the one already present in nature?
Just some thoughts to start some debate.
