Genetic Engineering Essay, Research Paper

A girl is born without Tay-Sachs disease, a devasting genetic disorder that has

decimated a lot of babies worldwide. A leukemia patient has defective bone

marrow replaced with healthy bone marrow that was cloned from tissue from her

own cells. These futuristic scenarios are not part of the debate for genetic

engineering but they should be. Many people are afraid that somebody will clone

Hitler or some evil person, but that is far from the fact. Genetic engineering

can be used to make many aspects of human life better, including saving lives.

The rapid development of humanity?s ability to control the gene will

eventually lead to a promising future for the entire planet as a whole. Genetic

engineering resulted not from the belief that nature should be manipulated and

perfected by humanity. Rather, its principle aim is, as of any other technology,

to improve the quality of life for the people of this planet. Therefore, it is

necessary to weigh the benefits and consequences of this relatively recent

breakthrough and determine in which ways it can be used to humanity?s best

advantage. This speech will investigate the ways in which genetic engineering

affects two important areas in today?s society. The first one will be the

improvement of the world?s agricultural techniques. With an ever-increasing

growth in world population, the Earth?s resources are constantly becoming

scarce. The advent of genetic engineering may be used to avert the occurrence of

worldwide famine and starvation. The second one investigated will be in the

field of medical development and study. Currently, genetic diseases are

decimating the world?s population. Thousands of people have already died

without a single worthy treatment or cure. Worldwide acceptance and support of

this technology would aid in our battle against these diseases. According to the

United Nations medium projections issued in 1990 (Population Council, 1994), the

global population will be increasing from 5.3 billion in 1990 to 8.5 billion in

the year 2025. Consequently, there will be a much greater need for food,

therefore accelerating further the consumption of Earth?s resources. To

achieve this, it would be necessary to extensively use agricultural technology.

However our current use of pesticides and other chemical fertilizers pose a

serious evironmental threat. Using genetic engineering would ultimately reduce

the amount of potentially dangerous chemical substances we introduce into the

environment. It would as well make food production more efficient therefore

reducing distribution costs. Thanks to genetic engineering, Geneticists are

currently able to create a resistant strain of the ordinary supermarket tomato

(Pen*censored*, 1992). Using a technique called antisense genetics, the gene

that is responsible for allowing tomatoes to soften and ripen can be transformed

to produce the opposite effect. The billions of tomatoes that circulating all

around the world can therefore be made to resist the normal abuse of shipping

and transport, and also having a longer shelf life. This practice could be

applied to all other sorts of fruits and vegetables. This would allow for less

of a waste of food therefore, putting less of a strain on human resources.

Diseases and genetic defects have always been a major cause of concern for our

society. Antibiotics, which used to be successful against pathogens, are now

starting to become useless since the viruses have become resistant to the

medications administered. Therefore a proposed alternative is the use of genetic

engineering or more specifically, gene therapy, to cure diseases at the DNA

level. This method is known as biotechnology and can aid in the treatment of

diseases like a hormone defiency. Currently, a common diagnostic practice with

unborn fetuses is the process of genetic screening. A needle is inserted into

the uterus of the pregnant woman and is used to extract some amniotic fluid. As

a result, several hundred diseases and defects can be diagnosed before birth

(Office of Technology, 1990). Therefore parents can choose to have an abortion

if they do not want their child to have a defect. For over two centuries,

vaccination has changed very little from the time of Edward Jenner, the first

physician to have ever tried the method on a human being (Yong Kang, 1989). But

this process has now become obsolete because by killing the virus, it is more

likely to mutate into a more resistant strain for which is incurable. As a

result, every new strain would require a new vaccine costing more money and

time. A new method of producing vaccines is currently being studied and involves

recombining the DNA of the virus so that it will not be able to reproduce. This

would be as effective as a regular vaccine except without the chance of

mutation. If genetic engineering becomes unrestricted the world would become a

better place. Worldwide famine and starvation could possibly end through the use

of technology in the agriculture field. The death rate would go down and very

dramatically in Third World countries. We could see the end of diseases like

AIDS and conditions like hemophilia. If you are interested in supporting genetic

engineering you can write to your congressman and ask him or her to vote down

the restrictions on genetic engineering. You can also make a petition a send it

to your governor.

Page Coates, Joseph F. ?The Promise of Genetics.? Futurist

September/October 1997: 18-22. Sirs Researcher. Online. Netscape. 9 April 1998.

Office of Technology Assessment, Biology, Medicine, and the Bill of Rights,

(1990, September 1). Chapter 4A Human Genetics and the Constitution, U.S.

History. Bureau of Electronic Publishing. Pendick, Daniel. ?Industry Serves Up

the Fruit of Tomato Biotechnology?, Science News 11 Nov. 1992: 376 Population

Council, The, (1994). ?Population?, Microsoft Encarta ?95. Funk and

Wagnall?s Corporation Yong, Kang C. ?Vaccine Production by Recombinant DNA

Technology.? Pergamon Press 15 Feb. 1993: 39-62