Genetic Modification is a highly controversial topic, with various moral and ethical issues that are sufficient to hinder anyone who wishes to research it.

Even with unwavering determination to study it, there will still be people questioning you: "If a person modifies their genes, can they still be called human?"

Similar ideological conflicts and disputes are common in various science fiction works. No matter when, there’s always a group of so-called human supremacists who shout "for the purity of the blue world" stepping forward to stop it.

They might even concoct more horrifying and anti-human atrocities to stop the so-called crime of "staining human genes," justifying them as necessary sacrifices.

"...But, what truly qualifies as being human? What makes a human, a human?" Faced with the same question from Qin Lan, Chen Xin countered her with another question.

"This, humans are human, aren’t they? Humans are called humans because we are intelligent, have wisdom and thoughts?" Qin Lan, having also read some science fiction works under the influence of Chen Xin, could answer his question without being at a loss.

However, this answer is clearly not comprehensive enough, at least not entirely correct.

"Humans are considered human because we have wisdom and thought, but are wisdom and thought innate to humans? The answer is not necessarily." At this moment, Chen Xin truly appeared like a scholar, sitting in front of Qin Lan and speaking eloquently: "If a baby grows up in human society, then they naturally possess the wisdom and thought that can be called human. But if a baby grows up away from human society, even raised by animals, then they will never possess the wisdom and thought that a human should have."

Qin Lan did not refute Chen Xin’s statement, instead, she nodded in agreement.

In 1920, in a small town called Midnapore northeast of Kolkata in India, two wolf-raised girls, known as wolf children, were discovered and became a sensation.

The older girl was about seven or eight years old, the younger about two. These two little girls were sent to an orphanage in Midnapore to be raised, given names, with the older named Kamala and the younger Amara. The following year Amara died, while Kamala lived until 1929.

From this incident, people concluded that, if wolf children do not have inherent defects at birth, this case illustrates that human knowledge and abilities are not innate and that bipedal walking and speech are not natural instincts. All these are products of social practice and labor acquired later.

"So, the reason humans can be called humans, possessing wisdom and thought, is because of the existence of entire human civilization and society. Without these, we aren’t much different from beasts." In Chen Xin’s view, humans are defined by their thoughts and souls, not their bodies: "From the perspective of species, humans are Homo sapiens, just one species under the order Primates of the subclass Eutheria in the class Mammalia."

"Even under the subtribe Hominina of the family Hominidae, there were 16 other species listed alongside Homo sapiens. Although they are extinct, from a biological point of view, they could also be called human."

"So looking purely from the angle of biological taxonomy, there is no essential difference between humans and other animals. The so-called human supremacy is just human arrogance."

"But even if there’s no fundamental difference between humans and animals, humans are a type of animal. Isn’t genetic modification still polluting the purity of human genes?" Suddenly, Mo Qingyan, who appeared nearby, interjected: "And putting aside other issues, A Xin, if you use wolf genes to modify humans, is the result a wolf or a human? Such things that go against moral ethics shouldn’t be done, right? Didn’t the state just introduce a law against illegal gene editing before the disaster? A Xin, aren’t your actions already illegal?" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"That’s the new article added in Article 336 of the Criminal Law, which criminalizes implanting gene-edited and cloned human embryos into human or animal bodies, or implanting gene-edited and cloned animal embryos into human bodies." Because he needed to conduct related genetic modification research, Chen Xin certainly researched relevant legal texts: "Embryo implantation is a crime. Purely researching genes is not illegal."

"But even if it’s not illegal, it violates ethics! Human genes are a perfect product of evolution. How can they be modified at will?" Due to her former professional habits, Qin Lan didn’t like the attitude of Chen Xin, who believed he could do anything as long as it wasn’t stipulated in the legal texts.

"Ethics should indeed be followed, but if ethics themselves are ignorant, do we still need to adhere to social ethics? In the feudal era, it was considered a virtue for women to have no talent, this was the social ethics of that time. Do we still need to follow such things now? Society is constantly developing and progressing, and so is ethics." Chen Xin patiently explained to Qin Lan and Mo Qingyan, trying to persuade the two of them.

It’s also because it’s the two of them; if it were someone else, Chen Xin would probably have lost patience long ago. There wouldn’t be such good patience to explain slowly.

"Even if social ethics need to constantly progress and develop, it’s not a reason to modify human genes at will, right?" Mo Qingyan comforted Qin Lan, who was somewhat emotional, and turned to inquire Chen Xin: "The human body is a perfect masterpiece of natural evolution. If there is anything inappropriate, can’t we wait for humans to evolve naturally? Why insist on such a radical means as genetic modification?"

"The human body is perfect? Hahaha, you must have read too many novels, really thinking that humans are some Innate Dao Body, where monsters have to transform into humans to cultivate?" Hearing this, Chen Xin laughed as if his stomach hurt until Mo Qingyan, dissatisfied, pinched him. Only then did he restrain his smile and continue to explain: "Humans are the way they are now merely as a result of continually compromising with the natural environment because the evolution of humans is not physical but rather cerebral. From the biological evolution perspective, the human body is actually cumbersome and bloated.

Moreover, not only our body but even our genes are filled with a plethora of redundant chains, some are remnants from when we evolved from ocean to land, some evolved emergency mechanisms just to adapt to a specific period’s environment, but all these things remain in our genes, verbose and useless.

If it were merely excessive waste, there wouldn’t be so much concern, but these complex and intricate genes are constantly mutating and can even collapse, forming life-eroding tumors within the body.

Stripping away the sanctity of humans, purely assessing the strengths and weaknesses of biological structures, none of the human organs are the most excellent, and many are woefully subpar.

Overlapping organ functions lead to tremendous wastage in neural pathways, and the blood and nervous network spirals complexly like the most intricate maze instead of following a more direct route, along with various abandoned and useless information present from the genesis of genes...

If we consider humans as an engineering product, this product could only continue to function through constant hammering and compensation by various coincidences and external factors, and is indeed a substandard item.

Therefore, with the advancement of human technology, progress in medicine and biology, gene optimization and genetic modification is an inevitable development of technology."