Every American is aware of the historic Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, and its divisive aftermath, but most do not know the history behind the controversy. When our country was founded, abortions before quickening, which is when the fetus begins to move, were commonplace and accepted as a normal part of life. Abortifacient drugs were sold in pharmacies, advertised in newspapers, and could even be bought through mail order. When these failed, procedures were also readily available. States did not even begin to pass laws banning abortion until the mid-1800s, and even the Catholic Church did not condemn these abortions until 1869.
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Victoria Wittner
It has been decades since Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA, and over a decade since the human genome was completely sequenced. In the ensuing years, technology to decode, understand, and change individual genes has grown in leaps and bounds. It is no longer a question of if we can change the very thing that makes us human, but should we. The question of should we rewrite the code of life is a complicated one, especially as it is not really one question but several, each stemming from a different type of possible modification. The most important difference is between somatic modification and germ line modification.