Bio-Medical Engineering
Alisa, Emily, Hannah, Nick, Kedzie
Thesis
Current Advancements
Over the last decade biomedical engineering has started to emerge as a field of great possibility. The impossible is starting to become possible. Young children or people who have lived their whole life with a medical setback are now able not only live with this problem, but overcome and flourish with or without it. Cochlear implants allow the deaf to hear, and medicines for memory enhancement allow a bright future for a treatment to Alzheimer’s disease. As is the same for multiple other aspects of life too much of a good thing can be bad. The ethics behind such medical enhancements in cases where they are not necessarily needed is a greatly debated topic. If this continues and becomes a more widespread practice that is accessible to families of all socioeconomic backgrounds an individual unique person can be hard to come by.
Sports
As genetic engineering becomes more prevalent, one of the main issues society discusses is its effects on sports. For years athletes have been trying to find a way to push the limits and become the best. Steroids are most commonly thought of as an athlete’s means of doing this, but with the advancing technology, genetic engineering, or gene doping, is starting to take over. Researchers have found many ways of “bettering” athletes, including making athletes stronger, giving them more endurance, and making them more capable to handle pain. Though this may better athletes, giving athletes a way to pick their desired talents removes competition and takes away the meaning of being an athlete.
Education
Not only are advances being made to enhance physical ability, but also advances to enhance people mentally are being created. According to John Cohen, memory implants are being engineered to help create long term memories. According to Stephen Handleman, eventually humans will be able to create a sort of “upload” system for the brain. A person would just be able to upload French or Calculus into their brain. This creates an unfair advantage to those who do not receive these “enhancements”. Additionally, strong work ethics and problem solving skills would become less valued in the world if effort is not need to learn. A passion for learning would also start to slowly disappear. Because of this, biomedical engineering should be limited to those with physical or mental disabilities.
Free Will
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