Please answer the following questions in a 200-word response minimum. Try your best to reference the text I will message you privately for how to access the text book.
1. Why is genetic engineering such a controversial ethical issue?
2. This is a simple question: what was your favorite topic of this class and why?
3. America sends tons of rice and/or grain to nutritionally poor third world countries, to help with the malnutrition and starvation. There was a question posed once which had to do with genetically enriching the rice that we give to third world countries, with vitamin A, to prevent certain conditions agitated by malnutrition. This is always a question that must be considered with these new genetically enriched and grown foods. Do you think that we should genetically enhance food that we send to third world countries? What about the possible bad effects that this genetically enriched food could cause?
What should be done if there are no other resources? Should we consider the implications of this type of resource over the benefit? Please share your thoughts on these issues.
4. Discuss the use of biotechnology and genetic engineering for medical, environmental, legal, and pharmaceutical uses. What are the pros and cons to our society?
5. If an individual in a third world country could not live very long without nutritionally enhance rice, would you consider genetically enhancing the rice that America gives these countries, to contain Vitamin A to help prevent diseases suffered from malnutrition such as ricketts?
Please participate (respond) to the classmate's answers with POSITIVE notable and educational input. (200 word minimum Reponses)
1. Carlianne: Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, has become such a controversial ethical issue because it uses human techniques from biotechnology and bioengineering to modify an organism's genetic makeup. One article I read that talked about why genetic engineering has become such a controversial ethical issue said "it is phenomenon that is completely incompatible with Mother Nature" (Chin 2009). This quote really stuck out to me because it made me really think about why there is such controversy and this sentence couldn't be anymore accurate, ggenetic engineering is altering organisms DNA and changing it in a way the nature and normal mutations could never do. Scientist have been able to genetic modify both animals and plants. Genetically modified foods and plants have become controversial because society does not know the long tern effects this foods will have on our society and the people eating them. While ggenetically modified foods are more widely accepted then ggenetically modified animals, there are still too man unknowns that are making people skeptical. Ggenetically modified animals have become an ethical issue because of multiple reasons. The main reason is because humans are manipulating animal DNA as if animals are property rather thenthere own individual self.
https://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/dchin/uncontroversially
Ormandy, E. H., Dale, J., & Griffin, G. (2011). Genetic engineering of animals: Ethical issues, including welfare concerns.The Canadian Veterinary Journal, 52(5), 544-550.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/animals/using/biotechnology_1.shtml
2. AnnMarie: Biotechnology and genetic engineering are tools and techniques used to create modifications in organisms by adding, modifying, or removing specific genetic materials in order to create a new organism. These tools and techniques are used in the medical field to fight against genetic diseases and disorders, to help find cures, create medicines, and alternatives for combating these disorders and diseases. The transgenics species that result from these processes are able to survive environmental changes in some locations where other species have difficulty, and the environmental impact of some of the changes in the genetically made species contribute to changes in the environment. There legal implications with using these techniques and procedures for experiments, actual medical procedures, and modifications in genetic makeup of species and the products created from them. These has to ethical and legal steps in place to protect the species, populations, and human impact involved in these experiments.
There are various medicines that have been created from these processes that have benefited the pharmaceutical industry and the patients they help. But they have also created short cuts for pharmaceutical companies to create products that may not be as helpful the public. There are more companies that may provide alternate medicines with less research than required and products that are not tested, but labeled and sold to consumers as authentic because the processes are not able to be tested or guaranteed to work 100% of the time. These create more legal and ethical issues for legitimate companies and pharmacies. The biotechnologies and genetic engineering processes are sometimes helpful and can help in creating new and better processes, products, and organisms in the future, but they also help to promote and give power to people who use them for malicious purposes in society.
Reference
Glenn, L. (2013). Ethical Issues in Genetic Engineering and Transgenics. Action Bioscience. Retrieved on 9/14/2016 from https://www.actionbioscience.org/biotechnology/glenn.html
3. Anthony: These processes can cause dramatic changes in the natural makeup and characteristic of the organism. There are benefits and risks associated with genetic engineering, just like most other scientific practices. First, the benefits of biotechnology or genetic engineering can lead to better flavor, growth rate and nutrition. Crops like potatoes, soybeans and tomatoes are now sometimes genetically engineered in order to improve size, crop yield, and nutritional values of the plants. These genetically engineered crops also possess the ability to grow in lands that would normally not be suitable for cultivation. Also, the other benefit is genes that are responsible for unique and desirable qualities in the human DNA can be exposed and introduced into the genes of another person. This changes the structural elements of a person's DNA.
The drawbacks of these processes are genetic diversity and genetic problem. Genetic engineering can affect the diversity among the individuals. Cloning might be unfavorable to individualism. Furthermore, such process might not be affordable for poor. Hence, it makes the gene therapy impossible for an average person. Gene therapy on humans can end to some side effects. While relieving one problem, the treatment may cause the onset of another issue. As a single cell is liable for various characteristics, the cell isolation process will be responsible for one trait will be complicated.
Perzigian, A. (2003). Brief Summary of Genetic Engineering and Animals . In Animal Law Legal Center . Retrieved September 14, 2016, from https://www.animallaw.info/article/brief-summary-genetic-engineering-and-animals.