Background
Huxley presented a severe form of eugenics. Genetic engineering has come to replace parents in the process of creating a child. Babies are made in factories and passed along on conveyor belts using the mass production technique. The goal? To create perfect clones in a more effective way, of course! According to the state controllers (the government) each being has an improved lifestyle and contributes to making the state a better place. As Huxley informs, "One egg, one embryo, one adult- normality. But an egg that will bud, will proliferate, will divide. From eight to ninety-six buds, and every egg will grow into a perfectly formed embryo and every embryo into a full sized adult (Huxley 6). While this creates many human beings easily, it also results of loss of identity and loss of humanity. The government gives the being the personality and the job he/she is going to have. Since there is no choice, identity is lost. The thought behind it is that because they are cloned, they are instilled with the thought that they love whatever job they are given. They can not be sad or have any bad feelings taking away the humanity aspect.
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Brave New World
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Control. What more can a government want? The purpose of genetic engineering in the Brave New World is maximum efficiency as well as absolute control. With conditioning people the way they want, they are able to assign jobs accordingly and get more done while keeping all the workers happy.
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Our World
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Today, we use genetic engineering. However, our purpose is completely different- at least for now. In the article "Genetic Engineering" the author states, "Genetic engineering has resulted in a series of medical products. The first two commercially prepared products from recombinant DNA technology were insulin and human growth hormone, both of which were cultured in the E. coli bacteria" . We use genetic engineering in order to better the individual, not the society. If someone needs medical attention, or a new arm, we would genetically engineer it in order to help that person.
"Genetic Engineering." Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web. 31 May 2016. Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper & Bros., 1946. Print. |