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The Fate Of Man In A Scientist-technological Era
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 5]
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In the past centuries, man submitted to the dictum that children are
gifts from God and that their (or children’s) absence is an expression
of God’s wrath. It was taken that the sex of one’s children is
determined by the mind of God such that one was made to be grateful for
what he gets even if it is a girl again (may be for the fourth time).
The case of infertility was then seen as the actualisation of God’s will
on man. But in this era, not only that infertility has a total cure;
man can now choose to have more males than females in as much as he
adroitly follows the rubrics of science concerning the modernised form
of reproduction.
More still, the developments in science have
also led to the discovery of genetic abnormalities. It is true that
under normal circumstances, chromosomal donations during the period of
human conception do not go beyond or below the usual 23 chromosome pairs
from either parent. But sometimes the unusual may happen such that the
chromosomal donations may not keep to the usual 23 pairs. According to
R.F. Biehler “The unusual number of chromosome may either be 23+24
making an overall number of 47 instead of the usual 46.At other times it
may be 23+22 making a combinatory total of only 45 instead of the usual
466.â€
Biehler explained that there is bound to be a genetic
abnormality when either of these situations occur. The type of
abnormality that occurs in this situation is Down’s syndrome. He
explained that Down’s syndrome occurs when the cell is produced by 47
(i.e.23+24) chromosomes.
The missing of a sex chromosome or the
addition of an extra sex chromosome may lead to a type of genetic
abnormality called Turner’s syndrome. This abnormality occurs when a
sperm with a missing sex chromosome fertilizes a normal egg or an egg
with a missing an X-carrying sperm fertilizes X chromosome. Biehler
explained that this lack of a second X chromosome may cause stunted
growth in the female child and will eventually lead to a blockage of
breast development and menstrual flow in the female child at puberty.
However,
in the midst of these genetic discoveries, mankind should not submit to
geneticists as those who have the final answer about gene and sex.
Sometimes, their projections can really cause more harm than good. In
his book, “The Technological Societyâ€, Jacques Ellul argued, “If the
choice as to what type of human is desirable be left to those who are
making the choice possible –the geneticists, then the doom of humanity
must crop upâ€7. Under what I may call the magic wand of biology, man is
now gradually becoming quite different from what he was. He is changing
into a new and paradoxical animal. The very ‘Homo sapiens’ has now
become a ‘Homo biologicus’ who attains the level of fertilizing his
female at a long distance like the molusks or like the Kangaroo that
develops outside his mother’s body.
Some molecular biologists had
much questions to respond to in regard to the manipulation of living
things and human beings. The effects of science and technology were also
beginning to draw attentions and questions; for instance, population
density was much with a corresponding increase in pollution, deaths from
war and other social ills were in the steady progression: these
situations made the enthusiastic applications of biological discoveries
to everyday life to fall down drastically. However, the advancements in
science does not only revolve around gene and sex, it equally
encompasses the human brain.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 5]
Page 2 of 5
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