God Complex

 God complex: believing that you are better than everyone else, thus believing that you should play god, as you know what's best for everyone. 

A god complex comes into play with genetic engineering most clearly when looking at a designer baby. This is a child in which genetic engineering is taken to the extreme. Parents would build them just like a doll: skin color, hair, eye color, etc. This pick and choose method of ‘building’ a child can affect the 3 people involved with the god complex: the child, the scientist, and the parents. A child, built to be perfect in every way, might automatically assume that they are better than everyone else. Similar to how a spoiled child only thinks of themselves, so too would this child, perfect in their parent’s eyes, grow up to believe that they are above others. The scientist would grow a god complex slowly, by playing god one too many times. The mentality of: this worked, so why not this, is one that inspires going too far down the road of no return. When something is created and released in genetic engineering, it can not be taken back. That creature’s impact on the wild world is one that will continue on with its descendants, their descendants, and even the ones following that. Eventually, a scientist gone too far down the path of no return will begin to ask themselves some not-so-friendly questions. For example, because of white supremacy, over 1,000 African Americans were hate crimed in 2021. Wouldn’t it be better if they were all white? The answer to this question is obviously of course not. The problem with society is not found in someone’s skin color but in the way people react to it, and assume things based upon it. Parents could also develop a god complex. By designing a ‘perfect child’, they could begin to see themselves as a god– creating perfect things and molding their DNA to their will.  

But that would only happen in humans, right? No. Scientists could also take things too far in animals. It only takes one billionaire’s wish and suddenly a unicorn might be among earth’s creatures. Taking the horn of a narwhal and using its genes to place it on the head of a horse (with probably a lot of figuring and trial-and-error inbetween) could lead to the creation of a unicorn. Beyond this, what about some rich idiot being inspired to create a Jurassic Park from the genes of birds?  Genome tectonics is a way of looking at genes that allows scientists to figure out the changes in chromosomes that have happened over hundreds of millions of years. Using this approach, it might be possible to construct something like a dinosaur from the DNA of birds. Granted, this is a very far-flung possibility, as most people have common sense, right? On a slightly more positive note, these technologies could also be used to bring back extinct animals like the dodo, or increase the population of endangered animals. Each of these steps, however, comes with their own warning label for destroying the ecosystem. While in some ways this could be a positive change, as it could help balance the ecosystem, it is also important to understand that some things went extinct for a reason. Maybe it could simply be used for scientific discovery? Oftentimes small actions eventually snowball into something much bigger and out of control. Regulations to prevent people from pushing things too far because of a growing god complex is the first step. 

When IVF (in-vitro fertilization) was first created and used, people had a horrible reaction. Not only did religious groups turn against it, claiming that they were playing god, but the media became way too involved with the life of the child. IVF and genetic engineering  have received a similar reaction, with the hatred of IVF similar to the hatred of GMOs. Some people believe that the future of people’s acceptance of genetic engineering will be much the same as the reaction to IVF– outrage, grudging acceptance, and eventually seeing it as commonplace. While genetic engineering has a larger applicable field of effects, the resistance found toward things as small as GMOs, all the way to things as large as designer babies, is about the same. There is a natural revulsion to change- especially change in the ‘natural order’.  However, humans who choose to embrace genetic engineering are not playing God by using the tools they have. Hopefully, they use it to heal the world. Just as Chemotherapy causes both harm and good, so can genetic modification do the same thing. We just have to find the right way to use it.